California  State  Board  of  Charities  and  Corrections 


Surveys  in  Mental  Deviation 


IN 


366 


Prisons,  Public  Schools, 
and  Orphanages 


California 


Under  Auspices  of  the  Stale  Joint  Committee 


Brief  Description  of  Local  Conditions  and  Need  for  Custodial  Care  and  Training 
Dependent,  Defective,  and  Delinquent  Classes 


;ional 


CALIFORNIA  STATE  PRINTING  OFFICK 

SACRAMENTO 

1918 


date  Ft?1 


PUBLICATIONS     OF     THE     STATE     BOARD     OF     CHARITIES     AND 
CORRECTIONS   OF    CALIFORNIA. 

A   Standard  Dietary  for  an  Orphanage.     1914. 

Written  for  the  State  Board  of  Charities  and  Corrections  by  Dr.  Adele  S. 
Jaffa.  "A  standard  dietary  is  one  which  provides  for  every  fundamental  need 
of  the  body,  which  makes  for  good  health,  full  development  and  best  efficiency, 
and  docs  this  at  the  least  possible  cost." 

Index  to  Social  Legislation.     1915. 

Laws  enacted  by  the  forty-first  legislature  of  the  state  of  California.  Prepared 
by  the  State  Board  of  Charities  and  Corrections  and  published  by  the  San 
Fr..ncisco  Social  Workers  Alliance. 

Institutional    Reports :  What   they   are   and   what  they   should  be,   by   Dr.   Samuel 
Langer,  superintendent  of  Pacific  Hebrew  Orphan  Asylum,  San  Francisco.    1916. 

A  Guide  to  California  Laws  Pertaining  to  Charities  and  Corrections.     1916. 
An  index  of  these  laws  with  brief  statement  concerning  the  content  of  each. 

County  Outdoor  Relief  in  California.     1916. 

First  bulletin  by  the  State  Board  of  Charities  and  Corrections  on  county 
outrelief.  This  bulletin  presents  the  salient  facts  concerning  the  administration 
of  public  relief  to  the  poor  in  their  own  homes  in  California.  The  outline 
shows  the  distribution  of  responsibility  for  the  care  of  public  dependents  between 
the  state  and  county  governments  on  the  one  hand  and  between  institutional 
and  outdoor  care  on  the  other. 

A  Study  in  County  Jails  in  California.     1916. 

Prepared  by  Stuart  A.  Queen,  when  secretary  of  the  State  Board  of  Charities 
and  Corrections.  Shows  the  uses  and  cost  of  the  jails  and  recommends  various 
changes:  primarily  the  establishment,  by  the  state,  of  a  colony  for  misde- 
meanants. 

A  Standard  Plan  for  Small  Jails.     1917. 

Plans  prepared  by  Earl  H.  Markwart,  architect,  with  brief  explanation. 


\ 


California  State  Board  of  Charities  and  Corrections 


Surveys  in  Mental  Deviation 


IN 


Prisons,  Public  Schools, 
and  Orphanages 

IN 

California 

Under  Auspices  of  the  State  Joint  Committee 


Brief  Description  of  Local  Conditions  and  Need  for  Custodial  Care  and  Training 
Dependent,  Defective,  and  Delinquent  Classes 


CALIFORNIA  STATE  PRINTING  OFFICE 

SACRAMENTO 

1918 


CALIFORNIA   STATE    BOARD   OF   CHARITIES  AND  CORRECTIONS. 

STATE   JOINT   COMMITTEE   ON    DEFECTIVES    IN 
CALIFORNIA. 

MRS.  CABBIE  PARSONS  BBYANT,  Chairman, 

Vice  president.  State  Board  of  Charities  and  Corrections. 

DB.  MARTIN  A.  MEYER, 

President,  State  Board  of  Charities  and  Corrections. 

REV.  GEOBGE  W.  STONE, 

Member,  State  Board  of  Education. 

DR.  GEORGE  E.  EBBIGHT, 

President,  State  Board  of  Health. 

DB.  WELBUB  A.  SAWYER, 

Member,  State  Lunacy  Commission. 

MB.  JOHN  FBANCIS  NEYLAN, 

Former  Chairman,  State  Board  of  Control. 


SURVEYS  IN  MENTAL  DEVIATION. 

BY 

DR.  LEWIS  M.  TERMAN,  Professor  of  Education,  Leland  Stanford  Junior  University. 

DB.  J.  HAROLD  WILLIAMS,  Director,  Department  of  Research,  Whittier  State  School. 

DR.  GRACE  M.  FEBNALD,  Head  of  the  Department  of  Psychology,  Los  Angeles  State 

Normal  School. 

Assisted  6j/ 

H.  E.  KNOLLIN  MARGARET  HICKSON 

VIRGIL  DICKSON  LUCILE  G.  PHILLIPS 

LOWBY  HOWARD  EDYTHE  KATHARINE  BRYANT 

MAUD  WHITLOCK  MBS.  J.  HAROLD  WILLIAMS 


Published  by  th» 

STATE  BOARD  OF  CHARITIES  AND  CORRECTIONS 

State  Printing  Office 

Sacramento 

1918 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


Page 
REPORT  OF  THE  STATE  JOINT  COMMITTEE 5 

A  PARTIAL,  PSYCHOLOGICAL  SURVEY  OP  THE  PRISON  POPULATION  OP 
SAN  QUENTIN,  CALIFORNIA,  BASED  ON  MENTAL  TESTS  OP  155 
CONSECUTIVE  ENTRANTS.  By  Lewis  M.  Terman,  Ph.D.,  and  H.  E. 
Knollin  - 6 

BACKWARD  AND  FEEBLE-MINDED  CHILDREN  IN  THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS 
OF  "X"  COUNTY,  CALIFORNIA.  By  Lewis  M.  Terman,  Ph.D.,  Virgil  Dickson 
and  Lowry  Howard 19 

THE  INTELLIGENCE  OP  ORPHAN  CHILDREN  AND  UNWED  MOTHERS 
IN  CALIFORNIA  CHARITABLE  INSTITUTIONS.  By  J.  Harold 
Williams,  Ph.D ! 46 

THE  MENTAL  EXAMINATION  OP  75  CHILDREN  AT  THE  "Y"  HOME.  By 
Grace  M.  Fernald,  M.D 82 


REPORT  OF  THE  STATE  JOINT  COMMITTEE. 

A  nation-wide  awakening  to  the  menace  of  the  feeble-minded  is  one 
of  the  most  noteworthy  movements  of  present  public  thought.  Increas- 
ing attention  is  being  given  the  problems  of  mental  deviation.  This 
attention  reaches  roughly  into  two  fields:  first,  intensive  study  of 
feeble-mindedness  as  a  social  problem  and  the  consequent  increased 
number  of  surveys ;  second,  the  study  of  the  mental  defective  in  institu- 
tions and  the  possibilities  of  education.  California  has  but  one  state 
institution  for  the  care  of  the  feeble-minded.  At  this  institution,  the 
Sonoma  State  Home,  accommodations  limit  the  final  capacity  to  1,400 
inmates. 

With  the  ever-increasing  number  of  the  mentally  defective  which 
surveys  and  other  investigations  are  discovering,  the  need  for  additional 
provision  for  their  care  is  becoming  increasingly  urgent.  Calls  from 
juvenile  courts,  county  outrelief  offices,  state  institutions,  and  private 
citizens  lay  bare  the  fact  that  California's  present  provision  for 
the  custodial  and  educational  care  of  the  feeble-minded  is  wholly 
inadequate. 

In  1916  the  State  Board  of  Charities  and  Corrections  invited  the 
members  of  the  State  Board  of  Education,  the  State  Board  of  Health, 
the  Commission  in  Lunacy,  and  the  State  Board  of  Control  to.  meet  with 
it  for  a  general  discussion  of  this  problem.  The  outcome  of  the  confer- 
ence was  the  appointment  of  a  committee  to  be  known  as  the  State  Joint 
Committee,  whose  duty  should  be  to  secure  such  surveys  of  mental 
defectives  in  California  as  would  in  the  judgment  of  the  committee  best 
furnish  the  necessary  material  upon  which  to  base  a  judgment  as  to 
California's  conditions  and  consequent  needs  in  relation  to  mental 
defectives.  It  was  determined,  therefore,  to  make  a  study  (1)  of  con- 
victs in  San  Quentin  Prison;  (2)  of  a  group  of  children's  institutions 
under  state  supervision,  chosen  to  represent  types  of  children ;  and 
(3)  of  the  public  schools  of  "X"  County,  California. 

We  are  in  deep  appreciation  of  the  courtesy  of  Dr.  Lewis  M.  Terman 
of  Leland  Stanford  Junior  University,  who  generously  gave  his  time  not 
only  to  direct  but  to  assume  responsibility  for  gathering  the  facts  and 
compiling  the  final  reports  of  the  surveys  made  in  San  Quentin  Prison 
and  in  the  public  schools  of  "X"  County. 

Also  do  we  wish  to  acknowledge  the  cooperation  of  the  Whittier  State 
School.  This  school  volunteered  the  services  of  its  Research  Depart- 
ment. Dr.  J.  Harold  Williams,  the  director  of  the  department, 
conducted  the  surveys  in  all  but  one  of  the  children's  institutions 
chosen. 

To  Dr.  Grace  M.  Fernald  we  are  indebted  for  valuable  assistance. 
Dr.  Fernald  gave  from  her  much  overcrowded  days  the  time  to  conduct 
a  careful  survey  of  one  of  the  children's  institutions. 

The  committee  expresses  its  thanks  to  the  State  Board  of  Education 
and  to  the  State  Board  of  Charities  and  Corrections,  who  provided  such 
financial  assistance  as  the  work  demanded. 


STATE   BOARD   OF    CHARITIES   AND    CORRECTIONS. 


A  PARTIAL  PSYCHOLOGICAL  SURVEY  OF  THE  PRISON  POPU- 
LATION OF  SAN  QUENTIN,  CALIFORNIA;  BASED  ON  MENTAL 
TESTS  OF  155  CONSECUTIVE  ENTRANTS. 

H.  K.  KNOLLIN  and  LEWIS  M.  TERMAN,*  Stanford  University. 

Plan  of  the  Study. 

This  study  was  undertaken  in  September,  1916,  at  the  request  of  the 
California  State  Board  of  Charities  and  Corrections  and  on  the  invita- 
tion of  Warden  J.  A.  Johnston.  No  psychological  classification  of  the 
inmates  of  this  prison  had  before  been  attempted,  and  in  view  of  the 
fact  that  the  prison  is  one  of  the  largest  in  the  United  States  and  is 
conducted  at  an  annual  expense  to  the  state  of  more  than  four  hundred 
thousand  dollars  it  seemed  desirable  that  an  investigation  be  undertaken 
for  the  purpose  of  gaining  more  exact  knowledge  regarding  the  intel- 
lectual capacities,  and  in  this  way  regarding  the  educational  and 
reformative  possibilities,  of  this  large  class  of  the  state's  wards. 

In  view  of  the  time  limitations  (it  was  stipulated  that  whatever  work 
was  undertaken  should  be  reported  on  as  early  as  possible  after 
January  1,  1917)  there  was  no  possibility  of  making  a  complete 
psychological  survey  of  the  2,400  inmates  of  the  prison,  desirable  as 
this  would  have  been.  Such  a  survey  would  have  necessitated  the 
employment  of  a  psychologist,  two  assistants,  and  several  field  workers 
for  a  period  of  a  year  or  more,  and  would  have  cost  from  $10,000  to 
$15,000. 

Since  only  a  very  limited  and  partial  survey  was  possible,  the 
important  question  was  how  to  direct  it  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  it 
yield  a  fairly  reliable  index  of  the  mental  composition  of  the  prison 
as  a  whole.  Two  points,  especially  were  involved:  (1)  The  method  of 
selecting  subjects  so  as  to  secure  samplings  which  would  be  as  nearly 
as  possible  representative  of  the  entire  prison  population;  and  (2)  The 
choice  between  superficial  tests  of  a  large  number  of  subjects  and 
more  thorough  tests  of  a  relatively  small  number. 

(1)  As  regards  the  choice  of  subjects,  there  were  two  possible 
methods  of  sampling,  either  of  which  could  undoubtedly  have  been 
depended  upon  to  give  a  fairly  accurate  idea  of  the  mentality  of  the 
prisoners  in  general :  choice  by  alphabetical  order  of  names,  and  choice 
in  order  of  entrance.  The  latter  was  the  plan  adopted. 

All  who  entered  the  prison  between  September  25  and  November  20, 
1916,  were  tested  in  the  order  of  their  entrance.  The  number  was  155. 


•This  study  was  planned  and  directed  by  me.  The  tests  were  carried  out  under  my 
direction  by  Mr.  H.  B.  Knollin,  a  graduate  student  at  Stanford  University.  Mr.  Knollin 
had  previously  tested  150  unemployed  men,  also  a  number  of  ordinary  business  men 
and  college  students  ;  about  two  hundred  individuals  in  all.  The  results  here  set  forth 
are  as  accurate  as  they  would  have  been  if  all  the  tests  had  been  made  by  me 

rrsonally.     The  responses  given  by  the  subjects  in  the  tests  were  written  down,  and 
have   in   all   cases   verified   the   scoring.     The   data   have   been   worked   over   by   us 
jointly. — Lewis  M.   Terman. 


SURVEYS   IN   MENTAL   DEVIATION. 


Several  other  prisoners  were  tested  on  request  of  various  prison 
officials,  but  as  these  were  selected  cases  they  are  not  considered  in 
the  present  report.  The  testing  began  on  September  25  and  ended 
December  24.  It  began  with  prisoners  who  had  only  entered  a  few  days 
previously,  but  as  the  rate  of  testing  did  not  keep  pace  with  the  rate 
of  admission,  the  last  subjects  tested  had  been  in  prison  about  a  month. 
The  question  may  be  raised  whether  our  group  of  155  unselected 
cases  is  large  enough  to  constitute  a  fair  sampling  of  the  inmates  of 
this  prison,  with  its  population  of  more  than  2,000.  We  believe  that 
it  is.  As  far  as  the  laws  of  chance  are  concerned,  the  sampling  is 
certainly  large  enough  to  be  reliable;  and  there  is  no  evident  reason 
why  prisoners  entering  during  the  months  of  October  and  November 
should  be  different  from  those  entering  at  any  other  time  of  the  year. 
Fortunately  it  is  possible  to  check  up  the  matter  empirically.  We  can 
find  out  how  evenly  the  tests  run  by  comparing  the  per  cent  of  feeble- 
mindedness found  in  the  first  half  of  the  testing  with  that  found  in 
the  second  half.  A  fairly  close  agreement  between  the  results  of  the 
two  groups  would  mean  that  either  group  alone  would  have  given  a 
sufficiently  large  sampling.  Applying  this  criterion  we  have  the  facts 
set  forth  in  the  following  table : 


, 

Number 

Percent 

First  half  of  testing  (78  subjects): 
Feeble-minded    

14 

17.9 

Borderzone  . 

10 

12.8 

Dull-normal    _         

21 

26.9 

Average-normal  

27 

34 

Superior 

6 

77 

Second  half  of  testing  (77  subjects): 
Feeble-minded 

13 

169 

Borderzone 

10 

129 

Dull-normal    

18 

23.4 

Average-normal  _  _ 

32 

416 

Superior          

4 

5.2 

It  is  seen  that  the  figures  of  the  first  half  and  the  second  half  of  the 
testing  agree  so  closely  that  there  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  adequacy 
of  our  sampling. 

(2)  In  regard  to  the  degree  of  intensiveness  with  which  the  study 
should  be  carried  out,  it  seemed  to  us  desirable  for  several  reasons  to 
make  the  tests  as  thorough  as  possible.  The  difficulties  involved  in 
arriving  at  a  satisfactory  mental  classification  of  adult  individuals  on 
the  basis  of  a  brief  mental  test  hurriedly  applied  are  well  known,  and 
the  possible  error  and  dangers  involved  in  such  superficial  examina- 
tions have  been  repeatedly  emphasized  by  the  more  responsible 
psychologists  at  work  in  this  field.  We  did  not  hestitate,  therefore, 


8  STATE   BOARD   OF    CHARITIES   AND    CORRECTIONS. 

in   deciding   upon   an   intensive   rather  than   a  more   extensive   and 
correspondingly  superficial  study. 

The  Tests  Used. 

Notwithstanding  the  great  progress  which  has  been  made  in  recent 
years  in  the  selection  and  standardization  of  mental  tests,  there  is  yet 
no  single  system  of  tests  which,  used  alone,  can  be  relied  upon  to  give 
absolutely  accurate  results  with  all  classes  of  subjects,  particularly  with 
miscellaneous  adults  who  have  often  had  little  opportunity  for  a  formal 
education.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  possible,  by  using  a  number  of 
different  tests  with  the  same  individuals,  to  check  up  the  shortcomings 
of  the  different  test  methods  and  thus  to  arrive  at  a  final  estimate  of 
an  individual's  mentality  which  will  be  reasonably  accurate.  The  tests 
selected  for  this  purpose  were  the  following:  (1)  The  Stanford 
Revision  of  the  Binet-Simon  Intelligence  Scale;  (2)  The  Yerkes- 
Bridges  Point  Scale;  (3)  The  Trabue  Completion  Tests;  (4)  The  Vine- 
land  Psycho-Anthropometric  Tests;  and  (5)  A  series  of  performance 
tests  to  be  used  with  subjects  who  were  handicapped  in  the  other  tests 
because  of  their  limited  knowledge  of  English.  These  included  the 
Knox  Imbecile  Test,  the  Healy-Fernald  Construction  Tests  A  and  B, 
and  the  Healy  Picture  Completion  Test. 

.Psychopathic  conditions  other  than  feeble-mindedness  were  left 
entirely  out  of  account  in  our  study,  though  in  a  complete  phychological 
survey  they  would  probably  have  been  found  almost  as  important 
factors  as  feeble-mindedness  in  the  production  of  crime.  Here  is  a 
rich  field  for  the  psychiatrist. 

Practically  all  of  the  subjects  who  understood  the  language 
sufficiently  were  given  all  of  the  first  four  series  of  tests  above  men- 
tioned, and  the  final  classification  was  made  on  the  basis  of  their 
combined  results.  In  the  case  of  subjects  who  had  rather  limited  com- 
mand of  English,  20  in  all,  dependence  was  placed  chiefly  upon  the 
performance  tests.  An  examination  usually  consumed  from  two  to 
three  hours,  instead  of  the  thirty  to  fifty  minutes  commonly  employed 
in  studies  of  this  nature. 

By  far  the  most  important  part  of  our  results  came  from  the  use  of 
the  revised  Binet-Simon  tests.  "We  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that 
many  of  the  criticisms  which  have  been  made  of  the  Binet-Simon 
method  are  unfair  and  misleading,  and  that  in  the  main  such  criticisms 
apply  only  where  the  method  is  misused  by  persons  who  do  not  know 
how  to  evaluate  its  results.  It  is  true  that  the  system  of  tests  as  Binet 
left  it  was  not  sufficiently  dependable  above  the  mental  level  of  ten  or 
eleven  years  and  that  its  use  in  this  form  tended  to  exaggerate  the 
amount  of  feeble-mindedness  among  adult  groups.  This  defect,  how- 
ever, has  been  largely  if  not  wholly  remedied  in  the  Standard  Revision, 


SURVEYS   IN    MENTAL,   DEVIATION.  9 

in  which  the  tests  have  been  so  extended  and  increased  in  number  in 
the  upper  levels  as  to  make  possible  the  measurement  of  normal  and 
superior  adult  intelligence.  This  revision  contains  90  tests,  as  con- 
trasted with  54  in  the  Binet  scale  of  1911.  It  possesses  also  another 
advantage  no  less  important :  the  fact  that  it  has  been  applied  to  several 
hundred  adult  individuals  of  the  nondefective  classes.  The  most 
frequent  criticism  of  the  Binet  method  when  used  with  delinquents  is 
that,  for  all  anyone  knows,  ordinary  business  or  professional  men  might 
not  make  any  better  showing  if  the  tests  were  given  them  than 
criminals  or  delinquents  make.  This  criticism  can  not  apply  to  the 
Stanford  Revision.  We  have  applied  it  to  enough  persons  in  the 
ordinary  walks  of  life  to  know  that  such  subjects  never  grade  feeble- 
minded by  it,  or  anywhere  near  the  border  line  of  mental  deficiency. 

Those  who  claim  accuracy  for  the  tests  usually  base  their  contention 
upon  a  belief  which  is  the  result  of  a  comparatively  lengthy  experience 
with  their  use.  However,  having  made  no  attempt  to  definitely  estab- 
lish what  the  degree  of  this  accuracy  might  be,  they  can  only  make  an 
approximate  judgment  in  regard  to  it.  Irrespective  of  how  accurate 
such  offhand  judgment  may  be,  nevertheless,  in  the  minds  of  those 
critics  who  are  only  partially  familiar  with  the  use  of  the  tests  it 
remains  nothing  more  than  an  unconvincing  personal  opinion. 

Accordingly,  in  order  to  avoid  the  necessity  of  depending  upon 
"firm  conviction"  in  this  matter  and  in  order  to  successfully  meet 
criticism  of  this  nature  it  was  decided  to  ascertain  mathematically  the 
degree  of  accuracy  of  the  tests  and  thus  establish  the  facts  beyond 
question. 

The  accuracy  may  be  indicated  by  finding  the  probable  difference 
between  any  two  measures  of  the  mental  age  of  an  individual  by  the 
revised  Binet-Simon  scale.  This  is  called  the  reliability  of  the  scale 
and  is  measured  by  the  probable  error. 

A  detailed  description  of  the  mathematics  involved  in  the  process 
of  finding  the  probable  error  of  the  scale  has  been  given  elsewhere  and 
need  not  be  repeated  here,  but  it  may  not  be  out  of  place  to  give  a 
general  idea  of  the  procedure. 

The  whole  scale  was  divided  into  halves  and  every  prisoner  tested 
was  scored  by  each  half  as  well  as  by  the  whole  scale.  In  dividing  the 
scale,  the  tests  numbered  1,  2,  and  3  in  each  age  group  were  considered 
as  constituting  the  first  half  (scale  "A")  and  those  numbered  4,  5, 
and  6,  as  constituting  the  second  half  (scale  "B").  In  the  age  group 
comprised  of  eight  tests,  the  first  four  were  assigned  to  scale  "A"  and 
the  last  four  to  scale  "B."  The  original  value  of  each  test  was  doubled 
in  order  to  make  the  score  by  each  half  comparable  with  that  of  the 
whole  scale.  The  average  of  the  scores  by  the  two  halves  was  therefore 
equal  to  the  score  by  the  whole  scale. 


10  STATE   BOARD   OF    CHARITIES   AXD    CORRECTIONS. 

The  "A"  scores  and  the  "B"  scores  were  then  treated  as  coordinates 
and  the  points  were  plotted  on  a  graph.  A  graphical  method  was 
employed  to  equate  the  two  scales  and  determine  the  probable  error  of 
the  whole  scale.  This  was  found  to  be  one-half  of  eleven  months,  or, 
roughly,  about  a  half  year. 

The  statement  that  the  probable  error  of  the  scale  is  six  months, 
means  that  in  50  per  cent  of  cases  mental  ages  found  by  it  may  be 
assumed  to  be  correct  within  six  months;  from  wrhich  it  follows 
theoretically,  that  in  90  per  cent  of  cases  the  score  would  probably  be 
correct  within  about  fifteen  months,  and  in  one  case  in  a  hundred  a 
score  may  be  in  error  to  the  extent  of  about  twenty-three  months  or 
more. 

These  facts  speak  for  themselves  in  the  matter  of  the  accuracy  of 
the  scale  and  are  a  sufficient  answer  to  the  unjustified  attacks  which 
have  been  made  on  the  Binet  method. 

Results  of  the  Tests. 

A  summary  of  the  results  of  the  tests  is  here  presented  together  with 
a  comparison  of  data  of  similar  nature  gathered  from  individuals  in 
various  classes  of  society.     Only  in  the  light  of  such   comparative 
studies  can  the  significance  of  mental  test  results  become  clear. 
Our  classification  of  the  155  unselected  subjects  is  as  follows:* 

Feeble-minded,  27,  or  17.4  per  cent ; 

Borderzone,  20,  or  12.9  per  cent; 

Dull-normal,  39,  or  25.2  per  cent; 

Average-normal.  59,  or  38  per  cent; 

Superior,  8,  or  5.2  per  cent; 

Very  superior,  2,  or  1.3  per  cent. 

In  this  classification  we  have  been  extremely  conservative.  There  is 
no  doubt  that  many  phychologists  would  have  classified  a  majority  of 
our  borderzone  cases  as  feeble-minded  and  many  of  our  dull-normal 
as  borderzone  cases. 

It  is  now  generally  recognized  that  any  line  which  may  be  drawn 
between  feeble-mindedness  and  normality  is  purely  arbitrary.  Feeble- 
mindedness is  not  like  a  disease,  which  one  either  has  or  does  not  have. 
It  is  an  all-around  weakness  of  the  mental  powers  and  may  exist  in 
any  degree  from  obvious  imbecility  to  an  extent  of  deficiency  so  slight 
that  the  subject  merely  suffers  a  minor  handicap  in  the  competition 
of  life.  In  a  certain  sense,  individuals  as  low  as  our  "dull-normal" 
group  are  also  subnormals,  since  they  are  below  the  average  in  mental 
endowment ;  but  we  do  not  call  them  defectives  since  they  are  able  to 


•This  classification  is  based  on  the  combined  results  of  all  the  tests  given.  In  the 
case  of  those  who  knew  little  English  reliance  had  to  be  placed  chiefly  on  the 
performance  tests.  The  data  have  been  treated  statistically  for  intercorrelations 
among'  the  various  tests,  but  as  the  results  of  this  treatment  are  of  a  technical  nature 
they  are  reserved  for  publication  in  a  psychological  journal. 


SURVEYS   IN   MENTAL   DEVIATION.  11 

manage  themselves  and  their  affairs  with  reasonable  prudence,  can  do 
semiskilled  or  sometimes  even  skilled  labor,  and  may  be  useful,  law- 
abiding  members  of  society.  By  feeble-mindedness  is  usually  meant 
a  degree  of  mental  inferiority  which  makes  a  normal,  independent 
existence  impossible  or  at  least  precarious. 

What  degree  of  intelligence  is  requisite  for  this  purpose  ?  For  some 
time  it  has  been  customary  to  take  12-year  mentality  as  the 
dividing  line;  that  is,  the  degree  of  intelligence  possessed  by  the 
average  child  of  12  years.  Experience  is  showing,  however,  that  this 
criterion  compels  us  to  classify  as  feeble-minded  no  small  number  of 
individuals  who  are  fairly  competent  laborers  of  the  unskilled  group 
and  who  manage  to  make  a  living  for  their  families  and  to  keep  out  of 
trouble.  The  tendency  at  present  is  to  draw  the  line  at  least  a  year 
lower,  that  is,  at  about  the  11-year  level. 

We  would  point  out,  however,  that  there  is  no  simple  standard  of 
this  kind  which  can  be  accepted  as  an  infallible  criterion  of  an 
individual's  fitness  to  be  at  large.  Ability  to  "get  on  in  the  world," 
"to  manage  one's  self  and  one's  affairs  with  ordinary  prudence,"  etc., 
depends  upon  many  things  besides  intellectual  ability.  It  depends  in 
part  upon  emotional  traits,  health,  looks,  bearing,  muscular  strength, 
inherited  wealth,  sympathetic  friends,  economic  and  industrial  condi- 
tions, the  prevailing  level  of  intelligence  among  those  with  whom  one 
must  compete,  etc.  For  this  reason  an  individual  who  grades  at  the 
11-year  intelligence  level,  for  example,  may  or  may  not  be  feeble-minded 
in  the  social  sense.  If  well  endowed  in  other  respects,  and  if  his 
environmental  conditions  are  not  too  unfavorable,  he  may  get  on  fairiy 
well  in  the  world  and  deserve  to  pass  as  normal.  On  the  other  hand, 
if  such  an  individual  is  emotionally  unstable  or  otherwise  handicapped, 
either  mentally  or  physicially,  he  may  not  be  able  to  pull  his  own 
weight  or  to  adjust  normally  to  the  conditions  of  social  life.  In  the 
case  of  a  certain  number  of  subjects  of  borderline  intelligence,  it  is 
not  and  never  will  be  .possible  to  decide  the  question  of  social  com- 
petency on  the  basis  of  a  mere  intelligence  test.  With  individuals 
below  a  certain  level,  however,  this  is  entirely  possible. 

The  facts  seem  to  be  about  as  follows :  If  an  individual  grades  below 
the  10-year  level  it  appears  that  a  normal  social  life  is  rendered  so 
difficult  that  the  term  "feeble-minded"  practically  always  applies.  We 
have  never  yet  tested  a  person  below  this  level  who  could  by  any  reason- 
able use  of  the  term  be  called  normal.  Such  an  individual  may  be  equal 
to  certain  kinds  of  unskilled  labor,  under  supervision,  but  the  super- 
vision and  social  guidance  are  always  necessary.  Lacking  it,  the 
individual  is  nondependable  and  incompetent.  He  is  also  a  social 
menace,  for  moral  responsibility  can  not  rise  above  the  intelligence 
level. 


12  STATE   BOARD   OF    CHARITIES   AND    CORRECTIONS. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  person  who  grades  as  high  as  12  years  is 
rarely  debarred,  by  reason  of  his  intelligence  alone,  from  living  a 
reasonably  normal  social  life  and  from  succeeding  at  some  kind  of  useful 
labor,  even  though  it  may  be  of  a  humble  sort.  That  such  is  the  case 
is  shown  by  the  fact  that  few  individuals  above  the  12-year  mental 
level  find  their  way  into  institutions  for  the  feeble-minded. 

Accordingly,  if  a  subject  grades  below  10  years  or  above  12  the 
classification  is  in  a  majority  of  cases  easy  enough.  The  real  difficulty 
comes  with  the  subjects  who  fall  between  these  levels.  In  such  cases 
it  may  take  years  to  decide  the  question  of  an  individual's  fitness  to 
be  at  large. 

Our  aim  in  the  present  study  has  been  to  classify  only  those  as  feeble- 
minded whose  intelligence  was  so  low  as  practically  to  exclude  the 
possibility  of  a  normal  social  life.  We  have  classified  as  dull-normals 
those  whose  intelligence  was  found  distinctly  inferior  but  not  inferior 
enough  to  prevent,  in  itself,  a  perfectly  normal  social  life  in  the 
ordinary  sense  of  the  term  "normal."  Between  these  are  the  border- 
zone  cases,  the  doubtfuls,  who  may  or  may  not  be  competent  to  get  on 
in  a  reasonably  simple  environment. 

The  group  we  have  classified  as  feeble-minded  range  from  7£  to  11^ 
years  in  intelligence ;  the  borderzone  group  from  10  years  to  12^  years 
in  intelligence.  That  is,  our  classification  has  not  been  based  solely 
upon  Binet  "Mental  Ages,"  but  has  taken  into  account  the  performance 
in  the  other  tests  as  well  as  other  supplementary  evidence  from  other 
sources.  The  foreign  born  who  were  handicapped  by  a  limited  knowl- 
edge of  English  were  given  the  benefit  of  a  good  deal  of  doubt.  We 
believe  that  if  we  have  erred  at  all  in  this  respect,  it  has  been  in  the 
direction  of  leniency. 

Comparison  of  the  Amount  of  Feeble-mindedness  Found  Among  Prisoners 
With  That  in  Other  Social  Groups. 

Our  statement  that  17.4  per  cent  of  the  prisoners  whom  we  tested  are 
feeble-minded  may  mean  a  great  deal  to  the  reader  or  it  may  mean 
nothing  at  all.  In  order  that  it  may  have  significance  we  must  have 
a  knowledge  of  the  amount  of  feeble-mindedness  which  is  to  be  found 
among  the  population  at  large. 

It  has  been  estimated  that  from  one-half  per  cent  to  one  per  cent  of 
the  general  population  are  feeble-minded.  In  order  to  be  conservative 
in  our  comparison  of  the  amount  of  feeble-mindedness  at  the  prison 
with  that  in  the  population  generally  we  will  take  the  one  per  cent 
rather  than  the  one-half  per  cent  estimate  with  which  to  make  the  com- 
parison. Using  that  figure,  we  see  that  feeble-mindedness  is  a  little 
over  sixteen  times  as  prevalent  among  our  prisoners  as  among  the 
general  population. 


SURVEYS   IN   MENTAL   DEVIATION.  13 

Let  us  see  how  this  compares  with  the  feeble-mindedness  to  be  found 
in  other  groups  of  society.  In  a  group  of  180  unemployed  men, 
vagrants,  tested  by  one  of  us  (Knollin)  in  a  previous  investigation,  10 
per  cent  were  found  to  be  feeble-minded.  This  is  ten  times  the  amount 
generally  conceded  to  be  existant  in  the  general  population.  In  a  group 
of  156  unskilled  employed  men  tested  by  a  graduate  student  under  the 
direction  of  Terman,  five  individuals,  or  only  3  per  cent,  were  found 
to  be  feeble-minded.  Of  these,  none  had  a  mental  age  below  10  years, 
while  the  feeble-minded  among  both  the  prisoners  and  the  unemployed 
vagrants  went  as  low  as  7-|  years  in  mental  age.  Among  a  group  of 
150  delinquents  at  the  Whittier  Reform  School  about  29  per  cent  were 
found  by  Dr.  Williams  to  be  feeble-minded.  Among  a  group  of  40 
Wells  Fargo  employees  tested  by  a  graduate  student  under  the  direc- 
tion of  Terman,  no  feeble-minded  individuals  were  found.  Among  a 
group  of  40  business  men  previously  tested  by  one  of  us  (Knollin),  no 
feeble-minded  individuals  were  found,  nor  any  who  approached  the 
borderline.  None  of  these  groups  had  had  an  education  above  grammar 
school.  Among  150  high  school  educated  adults  tested  by  Terman  and 
Proctor,  no  feeble-minded  were  found,  nor  any  who  were  near  the 
borderline. 

The  above  comparison,  besides  giving  a  clear  idea  of  the  meaning  of 
the  percentage  of  feeble-mindedness  found  at  the  prison,  emphasizes 
the  fact  that  those  adults  whom  we  would  naturally  expect  to  test 
normal  do  so  when  the  scale  is  applied  to  them;  that  is,  normal 
individuals  test  normal  by  the  Stanford  Revision  of  the  Binet  Scale. 

Assuming  that  the  aim  of  the  modern  penal  institution  is  to  do  all  in 
its  power  to  reform  its  inmates  and  turn  them  out  as  nearly  normal  in 
behavior  as  possible,  the  presence  of  this  feeble-minded  group  com- 
plicates and  hinders  the  accomplishment  of  this  aim.  Not  only  from 
the  standpoint  of  reform  but  also  from  the  point  of  view  of  administra- 
tion, it  is  desirable  to  know  the  amount  of  feeble-mindedness  in  the 
group  to  which  correctional  methods  are  to  be  applied. 

Relation  of  Feeble-mindedness  to  Nationality. 

Of  our  155  cases,  38,  or  24.5  per  cent,  were  foreign  born.  However, 
these  furnished  40.4  per  cent  of  the  feeble-minded,  45  per  cent  of  the 
borderzone  cases,  and  28.2  per  cent  of  the  dull-normals,  but  only  8.7 
per  cent  of  the  average-normals  and  superior  normals.  Since  only  24.5 
per  cent  of  the  155  were  foreign  born,  it  is  seen  that  notwithstanding 
the  leniency  of  our  grading  the  ratio  of  feeble-mindedness  and  border- 
zone  intelligence  is  about  twice  as  high  among  the  foreign  born  as  among 
those  born  in  the  United  States.  Something  like  this  has  been  found 
to  be  the  case  at  the  Whittier  State  School,  also,  and  it  indicates 


14 


STATE   BOARD   OF    CHARITIES   AND    CORRECTIONS. 


that  California  has  drawn  a  large  proportion  of  immigrants  of  an 
undesirable  type. 

The  following  table  shows  what  proportion  of  certain  nationalities 
and  races  were  found  to  be  feeble-minded  or  of  borderzone  intelligence : 


Feeble- 

minded 

Horde 

rzone 

Cases 

Per  cent 

Cases 

Per  cent 

Mexican,  Spanish  and  Portuguese  (20  cases) 

8 

40 

4 

20 

Negroes  (10  cases) 

2 

20 

2 

20 

European,  excluding  Spanish  and  Portuguese  (57 
cases) 

13 

22.8 

9 

15.8 

American,    excluding    native-born    Spanish    and 
Negroes  (60  cases) 

4 

6.6 

5 

8.2 

That  certain  races  and  nationalities  are  more  often  found  among  our 
convicts  than  their  numbers  in  the  state  would  warrant,  and  that  a 
much  higher  ratio  of  feeble-mindedness  is  found  among  these  same  races 
and  nationalities  than  among  those  of  American  stock,  are  facts  of 
serious  significance. 

Relation    of   Intelligence    to    Previous    Delinquency    Record. 
It  was  rather  expected  that  repeaters  would  be  more  often  found 
among  the  feeble-minded  and  borderliners  than  among  those  of  normal 
intelligence.     However,  this  expectation  was  not  borne  out  by  the  prison 
records,  as  is  seen  from  the  following  table : 


Previous 
prison, 
percent 

Tall?"8 
per  cent 

Previous 
reform 
school, 
per  cent 

No  record 
previous, 
per  cent 

Feeble-minded    

148 

74 

74 

704 

Borderzone 

15 

o 

10 

75 

Normal  and  superior  

231 

213 

55 

501 

From  this  it  may  be  seen  that  nearly  30  per  cent  of  the  feeble-minded 
have  previous  records  of  some  kind ;  that  25  per  cent  of  the  borderliners 
have  such  records;  and  that  almost  half  of  the  normals  and  superiors 
taken  together  have  such  records. 

It  was  also  expected  that  a  record  of  venereal  disease  would  be  found 
more  often  among  the  lower  intelligence  group  than  among  the  higher, 
but  this  expectation  was  not  borne  out  by  the  data  at  hand.  Of  the 
feeble-minded,  40.7  per  cent  admitted  venereal  disease;  of  the  border- 
zone  group,  65  per  cent;  and  of  the  normal  group,  55.5  per  cent.  These 
percentages  are  based  on  the  records  of  Dr.  Stanley,  prison  physician. 


SURVEYS   IN    MENTAL,   DEVIATION.  15 

Feeble-minded  and  Borderzone  Cases. 

Austrian  Pole.  Age  38  years.  Mental  age  approximately  8  years.  Serving  five 
years  for  manslaughter.  No  record  as  to  his  schooling,  but  has  been  in  the  United 
States  twenty  years  and  can  not  read  or  write  the  simple  English  that  most  foreigners 
master  in  a  few  years.  He  understands  English  fairly  well,  but  can  not  talk  very 
well.  Teamster  and  common  laborer.  Has  no  previous  criminal  record  and  no 
record  of  bad  heredity  as  far  as  could  be  ascertained.  Any  kind  of  mental  effort  was 
very  fatiguing.  Complains  of  dizziness  and  shows  indications  of  other  phychopathic 
conditions  besides  feeble-mindedness.  Bad  disposition.  Is  married  and  has  three 
children.  He  could  tell  the  day  of  the  week,  but  did  not  know  what  month  it  was, 
the  day  of  the  month  nor  even  the  year.  Could  not  tell  in  his  own  language.  This 
adult  with  a  child's  mind  will  be  released  probably  inside  of  five  years,  probably  to 
commit  other  crimes  and  to  produce  more  of  his  kind. 

Mexican.  Age  23  years.  Mental  age  about  8  years.  Crime,  robbery.  Stole  a 
watch.  Sentence,  two  years.  Attended  school  three  years  in  Mexico  and  also  a 
short  time  in  California,  but  could  talk  very  little  English.  Occupation,  laborer. 
This  is  his  second  term  in  a  California  prison. 

Indian.  Born  in  California.  Age  19.  Mental  age  8  years  and  8  months. 
Father  is  a  half-breed,  mother  full-blooded  Digger  Indian.  Occupation,  laborer. 
Crime,  second-degree  burglary — stealing  wine  from  a  neighbor's  cellar.  Sentence, 
two  years.  Record  of  gonorrhea.  Was  14  years  old  when  he  left  school,  but  had 
not  finished  the  second  grade.  Is  fairly  good  looking,  has  a  quiet,  pleasant  manner 
and  would  not  be  taken  for  feeble-minded.  All  his  reactions  in  the  tests  were 
typically  childish. 

Russian  Jew.  Age  51  years.  Mentality  of  8  years  and  7  months.  Came  to  the 
United  States  when  16  years  old.  Never  attended  school  anywhere.  Can  not  read 
or  write.  Occupation,  junk  peddler.  Crime,  burglary — stealing  brass.  Sentence, 
one  year.  Was  previously  on  probation  for  three  years.  His  disease  history  shows 
a  record  of  gonorrhea  covering  a  period  of  one  year.  A  ready  talker  and  has  a  rather 
pleasant  personality  which  leads  one  to  overestimate  his  intelligence. 

American,  with  some  French  and  Spanish  blood.  Age,  19  years.  Mental  age  of 
8  years  and  7  months.  Attended  school  until  16  years  old,  but  was  unable  to  com- 
plete the  fourth  grade.  Objected  to  going  to  school  and  played  "hookie"  most  of  the 
time.  Occupation,  blacksmith's  helper.  Burglary,  one  and  one-half  years.  Record 
of  gonorrhea.  Heredity  shows  insanity  in  one  grandmother  and  both  tuberculosis 
and  alcoholism  in  father.  Presents  a  striking  contrast  to  the  last  described  case,  for 
although  of  the  same  mental  level  his  appearance  makes  him  easily  recognizable  as 
feeble-minded. 

Indian.  Has  no  knowledge  as  to  his  exact  age  or  of  the  Indian  tribe  to  which  he 
belongs.  Thinks  he  is  about  24  years  old.  Mental  age  8  years  and  6  months. 
Attended  school  in  California  until  16  years  old  without  completing  the  fourth  grade. 
Occupation,  laborer.  Crime,  assault  with  a  deadly  weapon.  Sentence,  one  year. 
Cut  a  man  with  a  knife  in  a  drunken  brawl.  Has  been  in  jail  before  for  drunkenness. 
Record  of  gonorrhea.  Appears  somewhat  stupid  but  has  a  pleasant  face  with  a  good 
smile  and  would  not  be  taken  by  the  average  person  to  be  feeble-minded. 

Pole,  American  born.  Age  26  years.  Mental  age  8  years  and  4  months. 
Attended  school  from  the  age  of  7  to  14  without  learning  to  read  or  write.  Is  a 
teamster.  Grand  larceny,  ten  years.  Record  of  gonorrhea.  Did  not  know  the  name 
of  the  month.  Mental  effort  very  difficult. 

Negro.  Age  51.  Mental  age  below  7  years  and  6  months.  Attended  school  till 
14  years  old  without  completing  the  third  grade.  Occupation,  cook.  Burglary,  two 
years.  Stole  goods  from  his  employer.  Can  not  make  change  with  simple  sums 
under  25  cents.  Has  a  clever  way  of  avoiding  a  direct  answer  to  a  question,  thus 
covering  up  his  lack  of  intelligence. 

German.  Age  23.  Mental  age  11  years  and  4  months.  Eight  years  in  the 
United  States.  Attended  school  in  Germany  till  14  years  old,  but  could  not  give 
the  German  alphabet.  Occupation,  ranch  hand  and  laborer.  Second-degree  burglary, 


16  STATE   BOARD   OF    CHARITIES   AND    CORRECTIONS. 

three  years.  Found  drunk  in  a  foundry  preparing  to  carry  off  some  tools.  Previous 
jail  record.  Record  of  gonorrhea.  He  is  pleasant  and  fairly  good  looking  and  thus 
would  escape  being  recognized  as  being  feeble-minded. 

Irish-American.  Age  43  years.  Mental  age  10  years  and  6  months.  Attended 
school  for  several  years,  but  can  hardly  be  said  to  read.  Can  not  write  anything 
except  his  name.  Occupation,  boiler  tender.  Sentence,  two  years  for  "assault  to 
do  great  bodily  harm."  This  is  his  third  term  in  a  California  prison  and  he  says 
it  will  not  be  his  last.  Record  of  syphilis.  Has  two  children.  His  general  appear- 
ance would  not  suggest  defect  to  the  casual  observer. 

Mexican.  Born  in  the  United  States.  Age  21.  Mental  age  10  years  and  4 
months.  Attended  school  in  California  till  18  years  old,  but  did  not  finish  the  fifth 
grade.  Occupation,  blacksmithing.  Serving  a  ten-year  term  for  a  "hold-up." 
General  appearance  is  normal ;  talks  fluently  and  makes  a  good  impression. 

American  born.  Age  19.  Mental  age  of  10  years  and  11  months.  Never  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  past  the  fourth  grade  in  school.  Occupation,  ship  rigger.  Assault 
to  rob,  ten  years.  Graduate  of  Preston  Reform  School. 

Irish.  Age  50.  Mental  age  9  years  and  7  months.  Attended  school  in  the 
United  States  from  age  of  10  till  16  years  old,  but  could  not  finish  the  fifth  grade. 
Laborer  and  foundry  hand.  Fifteen  years  for  second  degree  murder.  Killed  a  man 
when  drunk. 

Born  in  the  United  States.  Age  27.  Mental  age  10  years  and  5  months. 
Attended  school  from  age  of  9  to  14,  but  could  not  finish  the  fifth  grade.  Ran  away 
from  school  frequently.  Occupation,  laundryman.  Forgery,  one  year.  Has  one 
child.  Father,  alcoholic.  One  brother,  tubercular. 

Negro.  Age  48.  Mental  age  10  years  and  4  months.  Never  attended  school. 
Occupation,  cook  and  laborer.  Robbery,  eight  years.  General  appearance,  very 
good.  Would  not  be  suspected  of  feeble-mindedness. 

Mexican.  Age  32.  Five  years  in  California.  Mental  age  about  9  years  and  6 
months.  Attended  school  in  Mexico  for  three  years.  Speaks  very  little  English. 
Is  a  rancher.  Robbery,  one  year.  General  appearance,  very  stupid. 

Mexican.  Age  21  years.  Six  years  in  California.  Mental  age  about  9  years. 
Attended  school  in  Mexico  two  years.  This  is  his  second  visit  to  a  California 
penitentiary.  General  appearance  is  much  better  than  the  above  case  but  his  intelli- 
gence is  about  the  same. 

Mexican.  Age  22.  Two  years  in  California.  Mental  age  9  years  and  6  months. 
Attended  school  in  Mexico  for  two  years.  Laborer.  Burglary,  two  years.  Speaks 
little  English.  Failed  in  the  test  of  drawing  a  diamond  from  copy. 

Italian ;  born  in  the  United  States.  Age  21.  Mental  age  10  years  and  2  months. 
Attended  school  in  California  till  he  was  15  years  old,  but  never  finished  the  fifth 
grade.  Did  not  like  school  and  preferred  to  steal  rides  on  freight  trains.  It  took 
him  three  years  to  do  the  work  of  the  fourth  grade.  Occupation,  plumber  (plumber's 
helper?).  He  was  a  special  officer  for  the  State  Board  of  Pharmacy,  doing  special 
detective  work.  Used  as  a  ferret  in  raiding  gambling  joints.  Grand  larceny,  ten 
years.  Previous  jail  record.  Is  such  a  fluent  talker  and  good  bluffer  that  no  one 
would  suspect  him  of  being  feeble-minded.  He  could  not  pass  the  absurdity  test. 

Swede.  Age  25.  Mental  age  a  little  below  10  years  and  6  months.  In  this 
country  ten  years.  Attended  school  in  Sweden  till  13,  only  reaching  the  fourth 
grade.  Occupation,  waiter.  Grand  larceny,  five  years.  Spent  fifteen  months  in  a 
Washington  reform  school.  Disease  history  shows  a  record  of  gonorrhea  covering 
a  period  of  three  years.  His  manner  is  so  stupid  that  the  casual  observer  would 
hestitate  to  call  him  normal,  but  his  mental  level  is  really  higher  than  that  of  some 
others  who  appear  brighter. 

Mexican.  Age  22.  Has  resided  in  California  six  years.  Mental  age  about  9  years. 
Speaks  little  English.  Occupation,  laborer.  Manslaughter,  ten  years.  General 
appearance,  very  stupid. 

Italian.  Age  23  years.  Came  to  the  United  States  when  14  years  old,  but  can 
speak  very  little  English.  Mental  age  about  11  years.  Has  never  attended  school. 
Laborer.  Burglary,  one  year.  Record  of  gonorrhea.  Has  a  pleasant  personality 
and  a  winning  smile  like  that  of  a  good-natured  boy. 


SURVEYS   IN    MENTAL   DEVIATION.  17 

Irish.  Age  20.  Born  in  the  United  States.  Mental  age  10  years  and  3  months. 
Occupation,  teamster.  Robbery,  seven  years.  He  could  do  none  of  the  tests  above 
the  twelve-year  group.  Possesses  neither  good  looks  nor  a  pleasant  personality. 
Was  very  stubborn  and  had  to  be  coaxed  into  taking  the  tests.  Reactions  childish. 

American.  Age  23.  Mental  age  9  years  and  5  months.  Attended  school  from 
age  7  to  the  age  of  17.  Says  he  finished  grammar  school,  but  this  is  obviously  untrue. 
Ranch  hand.  Two  years  for  issuing  a  fictitious  check.  Violated  probation.  Record 
of  gonorrhea.  Mother  has  tuberculosis. 

Father  born  in  England,  mother  born  in  Australia,  possibly  of  Negro  descent. 
Age  oG.  Mental  age  about  10  years.  Never  attended  school.  Could  not  read  or 
write.  Structural  iron  worker.  Burglary,  one  year.  This  is  his  second  time  in  a 
California  penitentiary.  Record  of  gonorrhea.  Has  two  daughters.  Is  a  very 
good  talker  and  a  good  bluffer,  but  has  an  unpleasant  disposition. 

American.  Age  54.  Mental  age  11  years  and  6  months.  Attended  school  till  he 
was  17  years  old,  but  failed  to  finish  the  sixth  grade.  Farmer.  Serving  a  life 
sentence  for  murder.  Is  a  very  glib  talker,  has  a  pleasing  personality  and  is  very 
accommodating. 

Mexican.  Age  21.  Two  years  in  the  United  States.  Mental  age  9  years  and  4 
-tnonths.  Attended  school  from  7  till  10  years  of  age.  Did  not  finish  the  third 
grade.  Talks  English  very  well.  Is;  a  laborer  serving  four  years  for  robbery.  Had 
a  sister  who  died  of  tuberculosis. 

Irish.  Age  43.  Borderzone  or  lower.  Mental  age  10  years  and  8  months. 
Attended  school  till  14  years  of  age,  but  reached  only  the  fifth  grade.  Was  a  wild 
lad  and  played  truant  half  the  time.  Occupation,  teamster.  Serving  a  one-year 
term  for  assault  with  a  deadly  weapon.  This  is  his  second  visit  to  a  California 
penitentiary.  Record  of  gonorrhea.  Has  two  children,  grown. 

Slavonian.  Age  30.  Born  in  Austria.  Mental  age  9  years  and  10  months. 
Attended  school  from  7  till  12  years  of  age  in  Austria  and  came  to  this  country  when 
16  years  old.  Has  been  in  the  United  States  fourteen  years,  but  does  not  know 
the  language  very  well.  Is  a  mine  laborer.  Burglary,  eighteen  months. 

Irish-American.  Age  25.  Mental  age  10  years  and  6  months.  Went  to  school 
from  G  to  14  years  of  age.  Occupation,  stevedore.  Six  years  for  manslaughter. 
Record  of  gonorrhea.  Has  a  clever  tongue,  a  ready  Irish  wit,  and  a  pleasing  and 
winning  personality.  Would  ordinarily  pass  for  normal  intelligence. 

Irish-American.  Age  28.  Bordenzone.  Mental  age  12  years  and  7  months. 
Attended  school  from  age  6  to  11,  never  getting  beyond  the  third  grade.  Occupation, 
upholsterer.  Life  sentence  for  first-degree  murder.  Record  of  gonorrhea  and  tuber- 
culosis. Could  hardly  read  or  write  and  displayed  psychopathic  traits  other  than  low 
mentality. 

American.  Born  in  the  United  States.  Age  22.  Mental  age  12  years  and  4 
months.  Attended  school  from  age  7  to  16  or  later,  but  never  finished  the  seventh 
grade.  Occupation,  laborer.  Second-degree  burglary,  one  year.  Record  of  gonor- 
rhea. Father  alcoholic  and  mother  insane. 

Mexican.  Age  25.  One  year  in  California.  Borderzone.  Mental  age  about  11 
years.  Never  attended  school.  Occupation,  laborer.  Robbery,  one  year. 

Negro.  Age  30.  Born  in  Bahama  Islands.  Borderzone  case.  Mental  age  11 
years  and  8  months.  Went  to  school  three  years.  Is  a  laborer  and  is  serving  a 
two-year  term  for  forgery.  Could  not  come  within  eight  days  of  telling  the  day  of 
the  month. 

German-American.  Age  33.  Borderzone.  Mental  age  11  years  and  11  months. 
Attended  school  from  9  to  16  years  of  age.  Occupation,  waiter.  Grand  larceny, 
ton  years.  Is  a  deserter  from  the  army  and  a  second-time  visitor  to  a  California 
penitentiary.  Very  stubborn. 

Mexican.  Born  in  the  United  States.  Age  23.  Mental  age  10  years  and  5 
months.  Attended  school  from  6  to  13  years  of  age,  not  completing  the  sixth 
jrnule.  Laborer,  serving  ten  years  for  robbery.  Is  tubercular.  General  appearance, 
rather  bright.  .Speaks  English  as  well  as  an  American.  Did  not  know  the  meaning 
of  tlu>  words  "pity,"  "charity."  nor  "envy."' 
2—86214 


18  STATE  BOARD   OF   CHARITIES   AND    CORRECTIONS. 

Mexican.  Age  27.  Borderzone.  Mental  age  about  10  years  and  6  months.  Has 
had  no  schooling  whatever  but  reads  fairly  well.  Can  not  speak  much  English.  Is 
a  laborer,  serving  two  and  a  half  years  for  burglary.  Is  married  and  has  two 
young  daughters.  Record  of  tuberculosis. 

German.  Age  21.  Came  to  the  United  States  very  young.  Borderzone.  Mental 
age  11  years  and  3  months.  Attended  school  in  New  York  State  till  15  years  old, 
but  can  scarcely  read  or  write.  Occupation,  cooper.  Serving  two  years  for  burglary. 
Record  of  gonorrhea. 

Mexican.  Age  23.  Three  years  in  California.  Mental  age  about  10  years  and 
6  months.  Laborer,  serving  one  year  for  attempt  to  commit  robbery.  Disease  his- 
tory records  both  gonorrhea  and  syphilis.  General  appearance  is  above  the  average 
of  the  Mexicans  at  the  prison. 

Irish-American.  Age  27.  Borderzone.  Mental  age  11  years  and  5  months. 
Attended  school  until  he  was  18  years  old,  but  could  not  do  the  work  of  the  seventh 
grade.  Was  inferior  in  all  his  studies.  Occupation,  newsboy.  Ten-year  sentence 
for  manslaughter.  Record  of  gonorrhea  and  syphilis.  Brother  died  from  alcoholism. 

American.  Age  29.  Borderzone.  Mental  age  11  years  and  3  months.  Attended 
school  until  he  was  15  years  old,  but  did  not  finish  the  fifth  grade.  Is  a  machinist 
and  is  serving  three  years  for  forgery.  Previous  jail  record  in  Utah.  Record  of 
gonorrhea.  Has  three  children.  Alcoholism  in  maternal  grandfather.  General 
appearance  gave  indication  of  a  much  higher  intelligence.  Other  psychopathic  traits 
present  in  his  behavior. 

Japanese.  Age  57.  Eight  years  in  the  United  States.  Mental  age  about  10  years 
and  6  months.  Attended  school  only  one  year  in  Japan.  Occupation,  vegetable 
gardener.  Serving  fourteen  years  for  second-degree  murder.  Speaks  very  little 
English.  Record  of  venereal  disease.  Has  one  daughter. 

Chinese.  Age  about  30.  Mental  age  10  years  and  6  months  or  11  years.  Occupa- 
tion, cook.  Serving  one  year  for  having  opium  in  his  possession.  This  is  his 
second  time  in  a  California  penitentiary.  Record  of  gonorrhea.  Is  a  victim  of  the 
opium  habit.  Sister  died  of  tuberculosis. 

Negro.  Age  21.  Borderzone.  Mental  age  12  years.  Could  read  and  write  only 
with  great  difficulty.  Occupation,  waiter.  Serving  ten  years  for  manslaughter.  Is 
a  graduate  of  Preston  Reform  School.  Record  of  syphilis.  Heredity  discloses 
alcoholism  in  father. 

American.  Age  50.  Borderzone.  Mental  age  11  years  and  3  months.  Always 
at  the  foot  of  his  class  in  school.  He  is  a  barber  and  carpenter.  Serving  one  year 
for  bigamy.  Has  four  children.  His  general  appearance  would  lead  the  casual 
observer  to  the  conclusion  that  he  was  an  ordinarily  intelligent  man,  with  a  pleasant 
personality. 

Chinese.  Age  62.  Has  been  in  this  country  all  his  life.  Borderzone.  Mental 
age  between  11  and  12  years.  Occupation,  laundryman.  Serving  thirty  years  for 
rape.  Record  of  both  gonorrhea  and  syphilis. 

SUMMARY. 

1.  One  hundred  and  fifty-five  successive  entrants  at  the  San  Quentin 
prison  were  tested  by  the  Stanford  Revision  of  the  Binet-Simon  Intelli- 
gence Scale  and  by  three  other  series  of  standardized  tests. 

2.  All  degrees  of  intelligence  were  found  between  7£  year  mentality 
and  that  of  very  superior  adults.     Of  the  total  number,  17.9  per  cent 
were  classified  as  feeble-minded,  and  12.8  per  cent  as  borderzone  cases. 

3.  The  basis  of  classification  was  conservative.     Of  those  classified  as 
feeble-minded  none  had  a  mental  level  above  11|  years  and  most  were 
under  10  years.     A  majority  of  those  classified  as  borderzone  cases  are 


SURVEYS   IN    MENTAL   DEVIATION.  19 

so  inferior  in  intelligence  as  to  make  a  normal  social  life  extremely 
problematical. 

4.  Comparison  of  these  results  with  tests  of  other  social  groups 
indicates  that  the  ratio  of  feeble-mindedness  is  more  than  16  times  as 
high  among  San  Quentin  convicts  as  in  the  population  at  large. 

5.  It  appears  that  individuals  of  extreme  mental  inferiority  are 
directly  responsible  for  at  least  one-fourth,  and  possibly  for  one-third 
of  the  total  amount  of  delinquency  and  crime. 

6.  The  ratio  of  feeble-mindedness  was  far  higher  among  Mexicans, 
Negroes,  and  recent  immigrants  from  Europe  than  among  those  of 
native  American  stock.     The  former  three  groups  make  up  about  three- 
fifths  of  those  tested,  but  they  account  for  nearly  nine-tenths  of  the 
feeble-minded  and  borderzone  cases. 

•  7.  As  far  as  the  prison  records  go,  there  is  a  somewhat  smaller 
proportion  of  repeaters  among  our  feeble-minded  and  borderzone  cases 
than  among  those  of  higher  intelligence.  The  ratio  of  venereal  disease 
was  also  relatively  independent  of  intelligence. 

8.  A   number    of   our   feeble-minded   cases   have   already   inflicted 
offspring  upon  the  state,  and  most  of  them  will  soon  have  to  be  turned 
loose  to  reproduce  their  kind  without  restraint. 

9.  All  the  findings  of  this  study  emphasize  the  necessity  of  bringing 
a  larger  proportion  of  our  defectives  under  social  surveillance  and 
restraint.     The  present  huge  cost  of  feeble-mindedness  to  the  state 
can  only  be  reduced  by  preventing,  as  far  as  it  is  possible  to  do  so, 
the  reproduction  of  degenerates. 

In  conclusion  \ie  wish  to  express  our  very  great  indebtedness  to 
Warden  Johnston  and  to  Dr.  Stanley  for  their  assistance  in  carrying 
out  this  study.  In  countless  ways  their  generous  cooperation  and 
never-failing  courtesies  smoothed  the  way  and  helped  to  make  our 
task  a  pleasant  one. 

BACKWARD  AND  FEEBLE-MINDED  CHILDREN  IN  THE  PUBLIC 
SCHOOLS  OF  "X"  COUNTY,  CALIFORNIA. 

By  LEWIS  M.  TERMAN,  VIRGIL  DICKSON  and  LOWRT  HOWARD.* 

The  request  for  a  survey  of  the  type  herein  described  came  to  us 
near  the  end  of  October,  1916,  with  the  stipulation  that  it  must  be 
completed  as  early  as  possible  in  1917.  A  small  sum  of  money  was 
set  aside  by  the  State  Board  of  Education  for  the  employment  of 
assistants  and  the  work  was  begun  without  delay. 


*This  study  was  made  at  the  request  of  the  California  State  Board  of  Education. 
It  was  planned  by  Terman  and  carried  out  under  his  direction.  The  mental  tests  were 
made  by  Dickson  and  Howard,  with  a  small  amount  of  assistance  by  other  graduate 
students  at  Stanford.  The  results  were  worked  up  by  Terman,  Dickson  and  Howard, 
and  this  report  was  written  by  Terman,  who  assumes  responsibility  for  the  accuracy 
of  the  facts  and  data  here  set  forth. 


20  STATE   BOARD   OF    CHARITIES    AND    CORRECTIONS. 

The  time  requirements  necessitated  the  choice  of  a  county  not  too 
far  distant  from  Stanford  University  and  not  too  populous.  "X" 
County  was  selected  as  fulfilling  these  requirements.*  Its  area  is 
between  400  and  1,000  square  miles,  its  population  between  25,000  and 
50,000,  and  its  school  enrollment  between  4,000  and  8,000.  Between 
10  and  20  per  cent  of  the  pupils  enrolled  in  the  county  attend  rural 
schools  having  less  than  three  teachers.  The  remaining  pupils  are 
divided  not  very  unequally  among  about  a  half  dozen  small  cities. 

To  make  a  complete  survey  of  mental  deficiency  in  all  the  schools 
of  "X"  County  would  be  a  much  greater  task  than  it  was  possible  to 
undertake  at  this  time,  one  that  would  require  the  work  of  several 
individuals  for  at  least  a  year.  It  would  have  been  well  worth  while 
to  give  an  intelligence  examination  to  every  school  pupil,  had  this  been 
possible,  and  to  have  employed  field  workers  to  investigate  facts  of 
heredity  and  social  conditions  prevalent  among  the  least  desirable 
families.  Notwithstanding  the  great  amount  of  expense  and  labor 
which  would  be  involved  in  such  an  investigation,  the  results  would 
amply  repay  the  cost  to  any  county,  or,  for  that  matter,  any  state. 
Such  a  survey  would,  for  the  first  time,  give  a  county  an  adequate  idea 
regarding  its  most  precious  assets ;  namely,  the  raw  material  for  its 
future  citizenship. 

However,  it  wras  necessary  to  limit  the  scope  of  this  survey  to  much 
more  modest  proportions.  Since  not  all  the  children  could  be  tested, 
the  question  arose  how  to  plan  the  study  so  that  it  would  be  reasonably 
thorough  within  a  limited  area  and  at  the  same  time  furnish  a  good 
index  of  the  number  of  backward  and  feeble-minded  children  in  the 
parts  of  the  county  not  so  thoroughly  covered.  Fortunately,  it  is  not 
necessary  to  test  all  of  the  school  children  in  a  county  in  order  to  find 
the  approximate  number  of  feeble-minded.  In  the  first  place,  children 
who  are  doing  entirely  satisfactory  work  in  the  grade  where  they 
belong  by  age  are  above  any  trace  of  suspicion  of  feeble-mindedness. 
In  the  second  place,  it  is  not  necessary  to  make  intelligence  tests  in 
every  school.  Samplings  can  be  made  of  the  schools,  and  the  propor- 
tion of  deficiency  found  in  those  selected  can  be  taken  as  representa- 
tive for  the  entire  county,  provided  such  sampling  is  checked  up  in 
ways  to  be  hereinafter  described. 

The  plan  finally  adopted  was  to  test  the  suspected  cases  in  all  the 
rural  schools  of  the  county  and  in  "Y"  city,  and  at  the  same  time  to 
obtain  data  from  all  of  the  other  cities  of  the  county  of  such  a  kind 
as  would  indicate  whet  her  the  proportion  of  mental  deficiency  in  those 

•Throughout  this  report  the  county,  cities,  schools  and  teachers  will  be  referred  to 
by  a  system  of  symbols,  the  key  to  which  is  on  file  in  the  laboratory  of  the  Bucket 
Foundation,  Stanford  University.  The  description  of  the  county  here  given  is  pur- 
posely made  somewhat  indefinite  in  order  to  prevent  identification. 


SURVEYS   IN    MENTAL   DEVIATION.  21 

cities  differs  greatly  from  the  per  cent  found  in  the  schools  where 
mental  tests  were  given. 

The  first  step  was  to  obtain  from  the  teachers  such  information  as 
would  make  it  possible  to  locate  suspected  cases.  A  blank  was  sent 
to  each  teacher,  and  with  it  a  letter  from  the  County  Superintendent 
of  Schools  urging  the  teacher  to  supply  the  information  asked  for. 
Each  teacher  was  requested  to  furnish  the  following  information 
regarding  each  pupil  enrolled:  name,  age,  grade,  years  attended  school 
previous  to  the  present  year,  quality  of  the  school  work  graded  on  a 
scale  of  five,  birthplace  of  the  father,  birthplace  of  the  mother,  and 
information  regarding  possible  causes  of  retardation  where  retardation 
was  present.  Each  teacher  received,  with  the  information  blanks,  a 
copy  of  the  following  letters : . 

INSTRUCTIONS  TO  THE  TEACHER. 

(Please  read  carefully  before  filling  blanks.) 

1.  Please  write  as  legibly  as  possible. 

2.  In  giving  the  grade  in  which  child  is  enrolled  please  indicate 

whether  it  is  the  first  half  or  second  half  of  grade  (<?.  g.,  high 
2,  low  6,  etc.) 

3.  Make    the   information    as   accurate    as    possible    regarding   the 

number  of  years  the  child  has  attended  school  previous  to  the 
present  term.  (This  can  be  made  more  accurate  by  asking 
children  the  age  when  they  entered  school  and  what  grades 
they  have  repeated  or  skipped.) 

4.  Indicate  the  quality  of  school  work  each  child  is  doing  in  his 

present  grade,  by  writing  in  the  appropriate  blank  one  of  the 
following  figures:  1,  2,  3,  4,  5.  These  figures  should  be  given 
the  following  meanings : 

1 — Very  superior. 

2 — Superior. 

3 — Average. 

4 — Inferior. 

5 — Very  inferior. 

5.  Indicate  in  the  same  way  your  estimate  of  each  child's  mental 

ability,  as  compared  ivith  average  children  of  the  same  age. 
Here  again, 

1 — Very  superior.          (NOTE. — This  information  will  be  considered 

9 SuDerior  absolutely   confidential   and   will   be   used   for 

statistical    purposes    only.     It    is   urged    that 
3 — Average.  special  attention  be  given  to  accuracy  here.) 

4 — Inferior. 

5 — Very  inferior. 

6.  If  father  is  not  living,  state  what  had  been  the  father's  occupa- 

tion. (Ask  children  when  this  is  not  already  positively  known 
to  you.) 


-I'  STATE   BOARD   OF    CHARITIES   AND    CORRECTIONS. 

7.  If  parent  was  born  in  the  United  States  simply  write  U.  S.     If 

birth  was  out  of  United  States  give  name  of  country.       (Ask 
children.) 

8.  In   ease   of   retardation    indicate   as   <l<:fmi1t  l]j    as   possible    any 

causes  or  explanations  known  to  you. 

Thanking  you,  in  behalf  of  the  State  Board  of  Education,  for  your 
cooperation  in  this  study, 

Very  truly  yours, 

LEWIS  M.  TERMAN, 
Stanford  University,  Cai. 

Letter  Addressed  by  the  County  Superintendent  of  Schools  to  Each  Teacher 
of  "X"  County. 

The  State  Board  of  Education  has  commissioned  Professor  Terman 
of  Stanford  University  to  gather  certain  data  regarding  exceptional 
children  in  rural  communities  and  small  towns.  I  will  ask  you, 
therefore,  to  fill  out  the  inclosed  blanks  with  the  information  called 
for,  and  to  return  the  same  to  Professor  Terman  as  early  as  possi- 
ble— :at  latest  by  November  8th. 

It  is  urged  that  you  make  every  effort  to  supply  all  the  information 
called  for  by  the  blank  and  to  make  it  as  accurate  as  possible.  Before 
tilling  any  of  the  blanks  kindly  read  carefully  the  instructions  which 
accompany  this  letter. 

After  the  replies'  have  been  received,  a  representative  of  Professor 
Terman  will  visit  your  school  for  the  purpose  of  securing  additional 
data  regarding  the  more  exceptional  children,  including  the  most 
intelligent  as  well  as  the  most  retarded. 

Professor  Terman  desires  to  make  the  study  as  quietly  as  possible 
and  without  publicity.  It  is  of  course  unnecessary  and  would  be 
undesirable  to  inform  the  pupils  as  to  the  nature  or  purpose  of  the 
investigation.  It  is  understood  that  all  the  data  will  be  used  for 
statistical  purposes  only  and  will  be  held  absolutely  confidential  as 
far  as  individual  pupils  are  concerned. 

Very  sincerely, 


County  Superintendent  of  Schools. 

As  a  result  of  the  information  thus  secured  it  w^as  easy  to  select 
about  the  lowest  20  per  cent  of  the  school  children  in  ability  and 
thereby  eliminate  the  remaining  80  per  cent  from  further  considera- 
tion as  far  as  feeble-mindedness  is  concerned.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
it  was  found  that  in  most  classrooms  it  was  necessary  to  mate  tests 
of  only  about  10  to  20  per  cent  of  the  children  in  order  to  avoid  the 
risk  of  missing  any  defectives.  In  certain  rooms,  however,  more  were 
tested.  The  rule  followed  was  to  test  every  child  who  was  rated  by 
the  teacher  as  seriously  below  average  in  school  work  or  in  native 
ability,  and  to  test  all  who  were  seriously  over  age  for  their  grade, 
whatever  the  teacher's  rating. 


SURVEYS   IN   MENTAL   DEVIATION.  23 

The  Intelligence  Tests. 

There  were  two  indispensable  requirements  for  the  necessary  field 
work:  (1)  assistants  who  were  competent  to  give  the  intelligence  tests 
as  accurately  as  the  trained  psychologist ;  and  (2)  some  means  of  con- 
veyance.* The  field  work  lasted  from  the  latter  part  of  October  until 
Christmas,  and  the  distance  traveled  in  the  work  of  the  survey  during 
that  time  amounted  to  more  than  1,000  miles. 

The  method  of  carrying  out  the  field  work  was  as  follows:  Before 
visiting  a  school,  the  information  supplied  by  the  teacher  of  that 
school  was  carefully  examined  and  the  names  of  those  children  were 
checked  whose  grade  progress  or  school  work  was  such  as  to  cause 
the  least  suspicion  of  low  mentality.  Then  the  school  was  visited  and 
the  teacher  was  questioned  regarding  those  children  whose  names  had 
,  been  checked,  and  regarding  any  others  who  she  thought  ought  to  be 
examined.  Individual  children  were  then  called  out,  and  given  a 
mental  test. 

While  the  testing  was  not  always  done  under  ideal  conditions  for 
a  psychological  examination,  it  may  be  stated  that  in  no  case  were  the 
conditions  especially  unfavorable.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
results  were  essentially  the  same  as  would  have  been  secured  under 
laboratory  conditions.  The  tests  were  administered  sometimes  in  the 
teacher's  office,  sometimes  in  hallways  or  other  vacant  quarters,  and 
occasionally,  in  nice  weather,  out  of  doors  or  in  the  automobile.  In 
each  case  the  examiner  took  the  usual  precaution  to  get  en  rapport 
with  the  child  before  beginning  the  test.  The  large  experience  which 
both  of  the  assistants  had  had  with  children  of  all  ages  and  classes 
rendered  this  task  easy. 

Needless  to  say,  the  children  knew  nothing  about  the  purpose  of  the 
investigation.  They  were  not  frightened  by  the  presence  of  strangers, 
and  after  a  friendly  chat  of  a  few  minutes  a  subject  was  always  ready 
to  go  about  the  test  in  fine  spirits.  Frequently  children  who  had  not 
been  selected  for  a  test 'begged  the  privilege  of  taking  one.  One  little 
boy  who  had  not  been  tested  cried  because  he  felt  he  had  been  slighted, 
and  to  assuage  his  wounded  feelings  it  was  necessary  to  go  back  and 

*In  both  respects  we  were  fortunate.  Among  the  graduates  and  advanced  students 
at  Stanford  University  were  two  men  who  by  training  and  interests  were  especially 
fitted  for  such  work :  Mr.  Virgil  E.  Dickson  and  Mr.  Lowry  Howard.  Mr.  Dickson  is 
a  member  of  the  faculty  of  the  State  Normal  School  at  Cheney,  Washington,  where 
for  several  years  he  had  served  as  director  of  the  training  school.  Previous  to  his 
wc-rk  there  he  had  served  several  years  as  a  superintendent  of  schools.  '  He  knows 
children  in  something  more  than  a  theoretical  way.  During  the  present  year  (1916- 
1917)  he  is  doing  graduate  work  at  Stanford  University  along  the  lines  of  mental 
measurement  and  school  administration.  Mr.  Howard  was  also  formerly  a  teacher  in 
the  Cheney  Normal  School  and  for  the  past  two  years  has  worked  at  Stanford 
University  in  Education  and  Psychology.  During  the  summer  of  1916  he  worked  as 
assistant  to  Dr.  J.  Harold  Williams  in  the  Research  Department  of  the  Whittier  State 
School,  where  he  tested  a  number  of  feeble-minded  boys.  The  work  of  both  in  this 
survey  has  been  done  with  a  degree  of  earnestness,  thoroughness  and  tact  which  can 
not  be  too  highly  commended.  Fortunately  also,  Mr.  Dickson  Is  the  owner  of  an 
automobile,  and  without  some  such  means  of  conveyance  the  survey  could  not  have 
been  made. — Lewis  M.  Terman. 


24  STATE   BOARD   OF    CHARITIES   AND    CORRECTIONS. 

make  a  pretense  of  giving  him  a  test.  In  order  to  avoid  arousing 
suspicion  as  to  the  purpose  of  the  investigation  an  exceptionally  bright 
child  was  occasionally  tested. 

From  the  plan  of  the  investigation  as  it  has  been  outlined  it  will  be 
evident  that  the  cooperation  of  the  teachers  and  the  county  super- 
intendent was  a  matter  of  great  importance.  Indeed,  without  such 
cooperation  the  investigation  would  have  been  impossible.  From  the 
beginning  of  the  work  to  the  end  every  courtesy  was  extended  us.  It 
was  understood  by  the  teachers  that  the  investigation  had  been  under- 
taken at  the  request  of  the  State  Board  of  Education  and  that  its 
purpose  was  to  discover  certain  facts  regarding  mentally  exceptional 
children.  It  was  also  understood  that  the  findings  of  the  survey  would 
be  used  only  in  a  statistical  way  and  that  they  would  be  held  con- 
fidential as  far  as  individual  pupils  and  names  of  schools  weiv 
concerned. 

The  blanks,  which  required  a  large  amount  of  work  to  fill  out.  wt'iv 
in  nearly  all  cases  returned  promptly.  Only  four  rural  teachers  and 
two  city  schools  failed  to  supply  the  information  in  time  for  inclusion 
in  this  report.  The  blanks  were  also  filled  with  commendable  regard 
for  accuracy.  In  a  few  cases,  however,  teachers  seemed  to  have  pur- 
posely refrained  from  designating  children  as  "inferior"  or  "very 
inferior"  in  intelligence,  possibly  fearing,  despite  assurances  to  the 
contrary,  that  the  information  might  be  made  public. 

Results  of  the  Tests. 

Twelve  per  cent  of  the  pupils  in  the  rural  schools  and  the  city  of 
"Y"  were  examined,  including  all  those  whose  work  or  progress  in  the 
grades  gave  any  ground  for  suspicion  of  defect,  or  174  out  of  an 
enrollment  of  1,464.  In  the  same  schools  21  children  were  examined 
\vho  were  not  suspects,  making  195  in  all.  In  addition  to  these,  51 
unselected  kindergarten  children  in  other  cities  of  the  county  were 
tested  by  Miss  Irene  Cuneo  as  part  of  another  investigation,  thus 
giving  a  total  of  246  mental  tests. 

Each  of  the  above  was  given  a  complete  test  with  the  Stanford 
Revision  of  the  Binet-Simon  Intelligence  Scale,  the  average  time  con- 
sumed being  from  35  to  50  minutes.  The  advantage  of  using  this 
system  of  tests  lies  not  only  in  the  fact  that  it  is  free  from  the  most 
serious  faults  of  the  original  Binet  scale,  but  that  it  also  contains 
nearly  twice  as  many  tests  and  is  therefore  correspondingly  more 
thorough.  Its  superiority,  in  the  grading  of  borderline  cases  is  a 
matter  of  special  importance.  The  standardization  of  the  tests  in  this 
revision  has  been  rendered  secure  by  their  use  with  more  than  2.000 
normal  children  from  3  years  of  age  to  16  and  above. 


SURVEYS   IN   MENTAL   DEVIATION. 


25 


In  the  further  interests  of  accuracy,  the  responses  of  the  subjects 
tested  in  this  survey  were  written  down  in  full  in  the  regular  record 
booklet  prepared  for  use  with  the  Stanford  Revision.  The  responses 
were  first  scored  by  the  assistants  who  made  the  tests,  but  every 
response  of  every  subject  was  later  checked  up  and  scored  by  Terman, 
who  is  therefore  able  to  vouch  for  the  accuracy  of  the  tests  and  willing 
to  assume  entire  responsibility  for  the  summary  of  findings. 

The  subjects  were  provisionally  classified  according  to  the  Intelli- 
gence Quotient.*  The  following  table  shows  the  distribution  of  the 
174  suspected  cases  in  the  Intelligence  Quotient  groups,  40-49,  50-59, 
60-69,  70-79,  etc. : 

TABLE  1.     Intelligence  Quotient  distribution  of  the  17-'f  children  tested  as  suspects. 


'intelligence  Quotient   

4049 

50-59 

6069 

70-79 

80-89 

90^99 

100-109 

110-up 

Number  of  cases 

3 

13 

45 

45 

48 

15 

. 

0 

By  way  of  explanation,  it  may  be  stated  that  practically  all  cases 
falling  below  70  Intelligence  Quotient  may  safely  be  considered  feeble- 
minded. The  range  70-79  is  composed  largely  of  borderzone  cases. 
These  between  80  and  89  are  practically  always  normal,  but  dull; 
those  between  90  and  109  may  be  called  average-normal;  those  110  or 
above,  superior-normal. 

However,  those  who  have  had  much  experience  in  the  classification 
of  defectives  know  that  the  matter  can  not  be  so  simply  disposed  of. 
By  feeble-mindedness  is  usually  meant  a  condition  of  mental  defect 
existing  from  birth  or  from  early  childhood,  resulting  in  an  incomplete- 
ness of  mental  development  which  renders  it  impossible  for  the  subject 
to  compete  on  equal  terms  with  his  fellows  or  to  manage  himself  and 
his  affairs  with  ordinary  prudence.  According  to  this  conception,  a 
feeble-minded  person  is  one  who  is  vocationally  incompetent  and  unable 
to  pull  his  own  load  in  society.  It  is  evident,  however,  that  the  ability 
to  get  on  in  the  world,  while  depending  mainly  upon  intelligence, 
depends  in  no  small  degree  also  upon  other  mental  traits  which  are  not 
adequately  measured  by  any  system  of  intelligence  tests.  Among  these 
are  emotional  qualities,  docility,  suggestibility,  will-power,  industry, 
stability,  etc.  It  is  for  this  reason  chiefly  that  it  is  necessary  to  classify 
a  larger  number  of  cases  in  a  doubtful  group.  Extensive  studies  which 
have  recently  been  made  indicate  that  a  subject  who  tests  below  70  is 
almost  certain  to  demonstrate  his  social  and  vocational  incompetency, 
however  well  endowed  he  may  be  in  other  mental  traits  besides  intelli- 

*By  "Intelligence  Quotient"  is  meant  the  quotient  derived  by  dividing  the  mental 
age  by  the  actual  age.  It  is  designated  by  the  abbreviation  I.  Q. 


26 


STATE   BOARD   OF    CHARITIES   AND    CORRECTIONS. 


gence.*  On  the  other  hand  those  who  test  as  high  as  80  are  almost 
certain  to  demonstrate  their  normality,  socially  and  vocationally,  unless 
other  conditions  of  defect  are  present  such  as  epilepsy,  insanity,  etc. 

The  real  problem  comes  in  the  diagnosis  of  cases  falling  in  the  70-79 
group.  The  majority  of  pyschologists  are  willing  to  designate  a  large 
majority  of  those  falling  between  70  and  75  as  feeble-minded ;  also  a  few 
who  fall  between  75  and  80.  Whether  a  given  child  who  tests  at  75 
should  be  called  feeble-minded  will  depend  upon  a  number  of  factors. 
In  the  first  place,  the  younger  the  case,  the  more  likely  the  Intelligence 
Quotient  is  to  decline  as  age  increases,  and  therefore  the  more  unfavor- 
able is  the  outlook.  In  the  second  place,  much  depends  upon  the  quali- 
tative nature  of  the  responses.  Of  two  subjects  having  an  Intelligence 
Quotient  of  75,  one  may  move  steadily  up  the  test  series  making  few 
errors  until  he  comes  to  the  limit  of  his  mentality,  when  his  successes 
rather  suddenly  come  to  an  end.  As  far  as  his  intelligence  goes,  it  is 
qualitatively  normal.  Another  individual,  while  earning  some  successes 
higher  up  in  the  scale,  may  make  absurd  failures  in  a  few  of  the  easier 
tests  and  by  his  erratic  and  uneven  replies  show  a  tendency  to  fhghtiness 
or  instability  which  would  render  his  case  much  less  hopeful  than  that 
of  the  other  subject  described.  Accordingly,  in  the  classification  of 
such  cases  it  is  necessary  to  take  account  of  the  total  clinical  picture 
presented,  and  also  of  every  bit  of  supplementary  information  which 
can  be  secured.  Even  then  there  are  borderzone  cases  in  which  a  final 
diagnosis  is  impossible  without  extended  observation  and  study.  It 
sometimes  takes  years  to  decide  whether  a  given  borderzone  case  is 
going  to  demonstrate  his  social  competency.  Other  factors  beside 
mentality  are  involved,  as,  for  example,  the  subject's  physical  strength, 
his  looks,  the  number  of  friends  he  may  have  to  give  him  advice,  his 
vocational  training,  etc. 

The  following  table  shows  the  number  of  cases  finally  classified  in 
the  groups  "imbecile,"  "low  moron,"  "middle  moron,"  "high  moron," 
"borderzone,"  "dull,"  "normal,"  etc. 

TABLE  2.     Shoicing  tJ-e  Number  of  Feeble-Minded,  Borderzone  and  Normal  Children 
Among   the  IIJ^  Suspects   Tested. 


| 

£ 

| 

M 

w 

o 

,  > 

• 

I 

1 

1 

I 

i 

1 

I 

i 

i 

r 

p 

i 

i 

F 

I 

i 

Number  of  cases  

3 

3 

14 

42 

29 

61 

22 

0 

*It  should  be  stated  that  adults  testing  at  70  have  a  mental  age  of  approximately 
11  years,  since  in  calculating  the  Intelligence  Quotient  of  adults,  years  of  age  above 
16  are  disregarded. 


SURVEYS   IN   MENTAL   DEVIATION.  27 

In  making  this  classification,  we  have  placed  no  child  below  the 
borderzone  group  whom  we  did  not  consider  feeble-minded  beyond  all 
dispute.  Correspondingly  we  have  placed  only  those  in  the  "dull- 
normal  ' '  group  who  were  fairly  above  suspicion  of  being  feeble-minded. 
The  doubtfuls  are  placed  in  the  borderzone  group.  While  many  of 
these  will  doubtless  in  time  demonstrate  their  ability  to  lead  a  normal 
life,  others  in  this  group  will  just  as  certainly  fail  to  do  so. 

Notwithstanding  the  conservatism  with  which  the  classification  has 
been  made,  the  percent  of  mental  deficiency  is  astonishingly  high,  so 
high,  in  fact,  that  we  almost  despair  of  convincing  others  of  the  accu- 
racy of  our  results.  In  the  rural  schools  4.9  per  cent  of  the  children 
enrolled  are  feeble-minded,  and  in  the  city  of  "Y"  3.5  per  cent.  The 
percent  for  the  two  combined  is  4.24,  disregarding  the  1.98  per  cent 
-who  belong  to  the  borderzone  group.  This  takes  no  account  of  the 
feeble-minded  children  of  school  age  who  are  kept  at  home,  or  of  those 
who  have  been  placed  in  the  Sonoma  State  Home.  Nor  were  epileptics 
included  in  this  survey. 

Perhaps  it  would  be  asking  too  much  to  expect  the  average  reader  to 
accept  the  above  figures  without  some  skepticism.  They  are  so  unus- 
ually high  that  the  writers  themselves  would  have  been  slow  to  believe 
them  if  they  had  been  presented  by  any  one  else.  They  have  found 
nothing  like  them  elsewhere.  Certainly  no  one  would  be  justified  in 
concluding  that  the  proportion  of  mental  deficiency  throughout  the 
state  is  as  high  as  has  been  found  for  "X"  County. 

Among  the  factors  responsible  for  the  large  amount  of  feeble-minded- 
ness  in  "X"  county  are  the  following: 

(1)  The  county  possesses  an  exceptionally  high  proportion  of  foreign- 
born  in  its  population.     In  the  rural  schools  and  the  city  of  "Y"  44 
per  cent  of  the  children  had  parents  who  were  both  of  foreign  birth. 
Many  of  these  were  of  Portuguese  parents  who  had  come  from  the 
Azores.     It  is   especially  significant  in  this  connection  that  for  an 
extended  period  the  Azores  were  used  by  Portugal  for  the  deportation 
of  criminals  and  undesirables,  many  of  whom  were  probably  feeble- 
minded. 

(2)  "X"  County  contains  a  large  proportion  of  low-grade  laborers 
who  are  employed  on  the  country  estates  of  wealthy  people. 

(3)  It  will  also  be  evident,  from  facts  to  be  set  forth  later  that  the 
county  has  been  unfortunate  in  claiming  a  rather  large  number  of 
families  in  which  feeble-mindedness  is  plainly  hereditary.    A  single 
family,  for  example,  yielded  22  per  cent  of  the  feeble-mindedness  found 
in  the  rural  schools. 


28  STATE   BOARD   OF    CHARITIES    AND    CORRECTIONS. 

Comparison   With    Other    Investigations. 

The  most  extensive  investigation  of  feeble-mindedness  in  the  public 
schools  of  California  has  been  made  by  Mrs.  Vinnie  C.  Hicks  at  Oakland. 
As  a  result  of  this  study,  which  has  extended  over  a  period  of  six 
years,  Mrs.  Hicks  classifies  3  per  cent  of  the  school  children  as  definitely 
feeble-minded. 

In  1912  one  of  the  writers  in  cooperation  with  Dr.  E.  B.  Hoag,  made 
a  parti.il  survey  of  mental  deficiency  in  the  city  schools  of  San  Luis 
Obispo,  and  found  2  per  cent  of  the  children  mentally  defective. 

Stanford  tests  of  1,000  unselected  children  in  the  public  schools  of 
five  California  cities  showed  1  per  cent  falling  below  70  and  2^  per  cent 
below  75.  Certainly  more  than  1  per  cent  of  these  1,000  unselected 
children  were  feeble-minded. 

After  a  number  of  investigations  in  Eastern  cities,  including  New 
York  City,  Dr.  H.  II.  Goddard  estimates  that  about  2  per  cent  of  the 
school  children  in  any  average  city  will  be  found  feeble-minded. 

Dr.  Wilhelmine  Key  in  an  extensive  study  of  a  county  in  northeastern 
Pennsylvania  finds  3.2  per  cent  of  the  population  mentally  defective. 

An  important  investigation  has  recently  been  carried  out  by  the 
United  States  Public  Health  Service  in  the  public  schools  of  Porter 
County,  Indiana.  In  this  study  all  the  2,185  children  enrolled  in  the 
rural  schools  of  that  county  were  given  a  Binet-Simon  test  and  a  medi- 
cal examination.  Approximately  1  per  cent  were  classified  as  definitely 
feeble-minded,  and  another  large  group  as  doubtful. 

A  similar  investigation  by  the  United  States  Public  Health  Service 
has  been  made  in  New  Castle  County,  Delaware.  Abbreviated  mental 
tests  were  given  to  all  the  3,793  children  enrolled,  and  on  the  basis  of 
these  the  seriously  retarded  children  were  sifted  out  for  a  complete 
Binet-Simon  test.  As  a  result  of  the  investigation  1.8  per  cent  were 
classified  as  probably  being  of  institutional  grade.  In  addition  to  these, 
.21  per  cent  were  epileptic  and  several  others  of  psychopathic  tenden- 
cies. 

We  see  therefore  that  the  investigations  have  usually  shown  from  1  to 
3  per  cent  of  the  school  children  to  be  feeble-minded.  The  ratio  in  ' '  X  " 
County,  4  per  cent,  indicates  an  exceptional  condition.* 


•Since  the  above  was  written  Dr.  C.  Macfle  Campbell,  Associate  Professor  of 
Psychiatry  at  Johns  Hopkins  University,  has  published  (in  Mental  Hvgicne,  Vol.  I, 
No.  1)  the  results  of  a  survey  of  mental  deficiency  in  a  district  of  Baltimore.  Of 
1,281  school  children  in  this  district,  Dr.  Campbell  classified  3  per  cent  as  having 
"pronounced  mental  defect."  An  additional  6  per  cent  were  found  to  be  so  markedly 
inferior  that  their  future  appeared  altogether  problematical.  On  the  whole,  Dr. 
Campbell's  findings  agree  closely  with  those  for  "X"  County. 


SURVEYS   IN    MENTAL   DEVIATION.  29 

Supplementary  Tests  in  Three  Kindergartens. 

We  are  able  to  supplement  the  investigation  made  especially  for  the 
State  Board  of  Education  by  reporting  tests  of  kindergarten  children 
in  the  same  county  by  Miss  Irene  Cuneo.*  These  tests  were  made  as  a 
separate  investigation  and  had  for  their  purpose  to  explore  the  individ- 
ual differences  in  mentality  among  children  of  kindergarten  age. 
Fifty-one  children  Avere  tested,  including  all  those  enrolled  in  three  of 
the  six  kindergartens  of  "X"  County. 

Of  the  51  children  examined,  20  were  tested  twice;  first,  in  the 
spring  of  1916  and  again  in  November  and  December  of  the  same  year. 
The  discovery  of  feeble-mindedness  is  naturally  somewhat  more  difficult 
in  the  case  of  children  of  kindergarten  age  than  with  older  children. 
Nevertheless,  of  the  51  kindergarten  children,  2  were  found  to  be  so 
obviously  feeble-minded  that  there  could  be  no  possible  question  about 
the  diagnosis.  One  other  doubtful  case  was  found.  Leaving  the  latter 
out  of  account,  however,  it  is  seen  that  approximately  4  per  cent  of 
the  children  enrolled  in  these  kindergartens  were  feeble-minded,  a 
figure  which  closely  approximates  that  found  for  the  rural  schools  and 
"Y"  City. 

One  of  the  three  cases  is  a  Portuguese  child  of  six  years,  with  barely 
three-year  intelligence.  The  teacher  pronounces  this  child  hopelessly 
deficient  and  the  test  itself  would  indicate  that  in  all  probability  the 
child  will  never  go  above  the  mental  age  of  five  years. 

Number    of    Feeble-minded    Children   in    the    Remaining    Schools    of   "X" 

County. 

The  question  arises  whether  the  ratio  of  feeble-mindedness  in  the 
remaining  schools  of  "X"  County  is  as  high  as  in  the  schools  where 
testing  was  done.  Our  data  give  us  a  line  on  this  from  three  different 
angles,  and  the  combined  evidence  of  all  makes  it  possible  to  answer 
the  question  with  a  reasonable  degree  of  accuracy. 

(1)  We  can  compare  the  percentage  of  pupils  rated  low  by  the 
teachers  in  the  remaining  schools  of  the  county  with  the  percentage  so 
rated  in  the  schools  where  tests  were  made. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  each  pupil  was  rated  by  the  teacher  on  a 
scale  of  five,  both  for  quality  of  school  work  and  for  intelligence.  In 
this  rating,  5  was  taken  to  mean  "very  inferior";  4,  "inferior";  3, 
"average";  2,  "superior";  and  1,  "very  superior."  Children  who 
were  rated  5-5,  that  is  "very  inferior"  both  in  quality  of  school  work 


•Miss  Cuneo  is  a  graduate  student  in  Education  at  Stanford  University,  and  a 
Graduate  of  the  kindergarten  department  of  the  State  Normal  bcnool  or  ban  Jose 
She  had  previously  testfd  a  large  number  of  kindergarten  children  for  the  purpose  of 
assisting  in  securing  data  for  revising  the  Binet  scale.  She  is  therefore  exceptionally 
well  acquainted  with  the  method  of  giving  the  tests  and  is  a  so  experienced  in  dealing 
with  children  of  kindergarten  age.  The  tests  which  she  made  in  X  County  kinder- 
gartens were  made  under  almost  ideal  conditions  and  were  therefore  exceptionally 
complete  and  reliable. 


30  STATE   BOARD   OF    CHARITIES   AND    CORRECTIONS. 

and  in  intelligence,  naturally  came  into  the  group  of  suspects.  More 
than  one  fifth  of  the  children  so  rated  in  the  rural  schools  and  "Y"  City 
were  feeble-minded.*  In  the  rural  schools  and  "Y"  City  9.5  per  cent 
of  the  children  enrolled  were  rated  by  the  teachers  5-5,  5-4,  4-5,  or  4-4, 
and  in  the  remaining  cities  of  the  county  the  ratio  was  almost  exactly  the 
same,  namely,  10  per  cent.  This  method  of  reckoning  would  indicate  a 
ratio  of  mental  deficiency  of  about  4.46  per  cent  for  the  untested  areas 
(9.5:10::4.24%:4.46%). 

(2)  In  the  second  place,  we  can  compare  the  rest  of  the  county  with 
"Y"  City  and  the  rural  schools  as  regards  the  number  of  over-age 
children.  The  following  table  shows  the  per  cent  retarded  one,  two, 
three,  and  four  years  or  more : 

TABLE  3.     Showing  Amount  of  Retardation  in  Tested  and  Untested  Ann*. 


33: 

Retarded 
2  years, 
percent 

Retarded 
3  years, 
percent 

Retarded 
4  years, 
per  cent 

"Y"  city 

and  rural  schools 

178 

82 

38 

27 

Untested 

areas  reporting 

175 

78 

26 

1  1 

The  above  table  shows  that  the  untested  areas  make  the  better  show- 
ing. The  proportion  retarded  three  years  or  more  is  only  3.7  per  cent 
in  the  untested  areas  (reporting)  as  compared  with  6.5  per  cent  in  the 
tested  areas.  For  retardation  of  two  years  or  more,  the  corresponding 
figures  are  11.5  per  cent  and  14.7  per  cent,  respectively.  It  is  known, 
however,  that  the  two  cities  not  reporting  fully  enough  to  be  included 
in  the  above  table  have  a  relatively  large  amount  of  retardation,  and 
this  would  have  tended  to  even  up  the  figures.  By  this  method  of 
reckoning  it  would  appear  that  the  proportion  of  feeble-mindedness  in 
the  untested  areas  is  at  all  events  probably  not  less  than  two-thirds  as 
high  as  for  the  tested  areas ;  that  is,  two-thirds  of  4.24,  or  2.82  per  cent. 

(3)  We  have  shown  further  on  that  the  ratio  of  feeble-mindedness 
among  school  children  bears  a  close  relation  to  the  occupational  status 
of  their  parents,  the  lowest  occupational  group  (class  5)  furnishing 
approximately  twice  its  share  of  feeble-minded.  Therefore,  by  com- 
paring the  school  children  of  the  tested  and  untested  portions  of  the 
county  as  regards  the  occupational  status  of  their  parents  we  derive 


•Frequently  also  a  child  who  was  not  rated  low  by  the  teacher  fell  into  the  class 
of  suspects  because  enrolled  in  a  grade  two  or  more  years  below  that  where  he 
belonged  by  age.  For  example,  a  child  of  12  or  13  years  who  was  enrolled  in  the 
second  or  third  grade,  and  whose  work  in  that  grade  was  about  average  for  the 
class,  was  sometimes  rated  by  the  teacher  as  "average"  in  intelligence.  In  such  cases, 
however,  the  test  always  showed  such  a  child  to  be  considerably  retarded  mentally 
and  not  infrequently  feeble-minded.  It  is  because  teachers  do  not  understand  the 
significance  of  a  child's  over-ageness  that  they  so  often  fail  to  recognize  feeble- 
minded children  as  such. 


SURVEYS   IN    MENTAL   DEVIATION. 


another  valuable  index  of  the  amount  of  mental  deficiency  in  cities  where 
no  testing  was  done.     This  comparison  is  made  in  the  following  table : 

TABLE  4.     Social  Status  of  Children  in  Tested  and  Untested  Areas.      (Class  1   is 
Highest;   Class  5,   Lowest.) 


OccupaO 

»nal  status  of 

the  father 

PerU 

2 
Percent 

Percent 

4 
Per  cent 

5. 
Percent 

Rural  schools  and  "T"  city 

621 

1675 

2124 

389 

169 

Cities  not  tested 

323 

186 

377 

27 

134 

The  figures  in  the  above  table  are  also  seen  to  be  slightly  in  favor 
of  the  cities  which  were  not  tested.  In  the  latter  the  proportion  of  the 
entire  school  enrollment  below  average  social  status  (that  is,  below  3) 
is  40.4  per  cent,  while  in  the  tested  areas  the  proportion  is  55.8  per 
cent.  This  is  partly  but  not  entirely  counterbalanced  by  the  larger 
per  cent  found  in  class  1  in  the  tested  as  compared  with  the  untested 
areas.  On  the  whole,  the  evidence  from  the  occupational  status  of  the 
children  indicates  a  ratio  of  feeble-mindedness  in  the  untested  areas 
about  four-fifths  as  high  as  in  the  tested  areas.  Four-fifths  of  4.24 
per  cent  is  approximately  3.4  per  cent. 

Summarizing,  we  find  the  three  lines  of  evidence  suggesting,  the 
following  ratios  of  mental  deficiency  for  the  untested  areas: 

Teachers'   ratings  4.46  per  cent 

Over-ageness    2.82  per  cent 

Social  status  3.4    per  cent 

Taking  the  average  of  the  three  per  cents  given  above  we  have 
approximately  3£  per  cent,  which  we  believe  may  be  taken  as  indi- 
cating very  closely  the  ratio  of  feeble-mindedness  in  the  cities  where 
testing  was  not  done. 

A  fourth  line  of  evidence  may  be  mentioned :  namely,  the  fact  that 
the  proportion  of  children  of  foreign  parentage  was  almost  as  high  in 
the  untested  as  in  the  tested  areas,  and  our  data  show  that  foreign- 
born  parents  have  furnished  a  disproportionate  number  of  defectives. 
On  the  whole  we  believe  that  an  estimate  of  approximately  3^  per  cent 
for  the  untested  schools  would  be  conservative. 

Who  Are  the  Feeble-minded? 

Comparison  of  Sexes.  Of  the  62  feeble-minded  children  found  in 
"Y"  city  and- the  rural  schools,  34,  or  55  per  cent,  were  boys;  28,  or 
45  per  cent,  were  girls.  In  the  kindergartens,  one  of  the  two  cases  was 
a  boy  and  the  other  a  girl.  Leaving  the  kindergartens  out  of  account, 
there  were  4  boys  and  2  girls  grading  below  middle  moron,  4  boys  and 


32 


STATE   BOARD   OF    CHARITIES   AND    CORRECTIONS. 


10  girls  grading  at  middle  moron,  and  26  boys  to  16  girls  grading  at 
high  moron. 

TAMI.K    .'.      si,<,irin</    IHxtrihutioii    of   thr    l-'«l,l< -\l  nni«l    I,//    8«te». 


Boys 

Imbecil. 
1 

Low  moron 
3 

Middle 
moron 

4 

2ft 
26 

Total 

34 

Girls    . 

2 

o. 

10 

16 

28 

"We  should  hardly  be  warranted  in  drawing  any  conclusions  from 
the  above  figures.  It  will  be  noted,  however,  that  the  traditional  view 
that  feeble-mi ndedness  is  decidedly  more  common  among  boys  than 
among  girls  is  hardly  borne  out  by  the  above  data,  although  there  was 
a  small  sex  difference  in  this  direction. 

Their  Location  in  the  Grades.  The  following  table  shows  the  per- 
centage retarded  1,  2,  3,  and  4  or  more  years  in  the  total  enrollment 
and  in  the  feeble-minded  groups  in  the  rural  schools  and  "Y"  city: 

TABLE  G.     Showing  Crude  Retardation  Among  Defectives  as  Compared   With   That 
for  the  Total  Enrollment. 


netarded 
1  year  or 
more, 
percent 

Retarded 
1  year, 
per  cent 

Retarded 
2  years, 
percent 

Retarded 
3  years, 
per  cent 

Retarded 
4  years  or 
more, 
per  cent 

Total      enrollment      for      rural 
schools  and  "Y"  city  

05 

17.8 

8.2 

3.8 

27 

The  feeble-minded   

90.3 

12.2 

33.8 

209 

209 

We  have  reckoned  retardation  on  the  usual  basis,  counting  any  child 
as  making  normal  progress  who  was  in  the  first  grade  and  not  yet  eight 
years  old.  in  the  second  grade  and  not  yet  nine  years  old,  etc.  This  is 
a.  low  standard  and  permits  from  half  a  year  to  a  year  of  retardation 
all  along  the  line  which  is  not  counted.  Grade  retardation  of  the 
younger  children,  especially,  is  overlooked  by  this  method  of  reckoning. 
Nearly  42  per  cent  are  retarded  three  grades  or  more,  on  the  conserva- 
tive standard  taken,  and  most  of  these  are  actually  retarded  mentally 
from  four  to  six  years. 


SURVEYS   IX    MENTAL   DEVIATION. 


33 


The  following  table  shows  the  age-grade  location  of  the  tested  feeble- 
minded in  the  rural  schools  and  "Y"  City: 

TABLE  7.     Age-Grade  Location  of  the  FeeUe-Minded. 


AGE 

GRADE 

TOTAL 

I 

n 

III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

5 

6 

P* 

2 

7 

2 

2 

a 

3 

/ 

4 

9 

2 

/ 

3 

/O 

3 

3 

5 

II 

2 

/ 

3 

/ 

7 

12 

2 

/ 

5 

2 

/ 

// 

/3 

2 

a 

3 

4- 

2 

14 

14 

3 

2 

2 

7 

15 

/ 

/ 

/ 

3 

16 

2 

/ 

3 

TOTAL 

14 

10 

7 

/3 

6 

6 

3 

/ 

(52 

From  the  facts  set  forth  in  the  above  table  one  could  safely  infer, 
even  without  the  aid  of  mental  tests,  that  a  majority  of  these  children 
are  feeble-minded.  Moreover,  for  two  reasons  the  age-grade  distribution 
of  the  children  represent  their  mental  status  too  favorably:  (1)  The 
younger  feeble-minded  have  not  yet  had  time  to  fall  below  grade.  The 
feeble-minded  of  ages  6  and  1,  for  example,  are  represented  in  the 
table  as  being  up  to  grade.  (2)  The  majority  of  the  feeble-minded 
are  in  reality  above  the  grade  where  they  can  do  satisfactory  work, 
because  of  the  universal  tendency  among  teachers  to  promote  pupils 
by  age.  In  "X"  County  the  superintendent  recommends  that  no 
pupil  shall  be  required  to  repeat  a  grade  more  than  once ;  hence  a  pupil 
who  stays  in  school  long  enough  will  finally  reach  the  upper  gradas 
however  feeble-minded  he  may  be.  For  example,  of  the  four  feeble- 
minded children  in  the  grades  seven  and  eight,  not  one  had  reached 
a  mental  level  which  would  justify  promotion  beyond  the  fourth 
grade. 


34 


STATE   BOARD   OF    CHARITIES   AND    CORRECTIONS. 


The  following  table  gives  the  distribution  of  each  mental  age  in  the 
grades,  for  the  feeble-minded.  It  shows  that  the  feeble-minded  are, 
on  the  basis  of  their  mental  ages,  actually  accelerated.  As  a  rule  the 
more  retarded  a  child  is  on  the  basis  of  real  age,  the  more  accelerated 
he  is  by  mental  age. 

TABLE  8.  Showing  Grade  Distribution  of  62  Feeble-Minded  Children  ~by  Mental  Age. 


GRADE 

MENTAL 
AGE 

I 

II 

III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VlH 

TOTAL 

4 

^ 

4 

5 

7 

2 

9 

6 

2 

2 

/ 

5 

7 

/ 

4 

3 

/ 

S 

6 

2 

3 

8 

7 

4 

24 

9 

4- 

/ 

2 

2 

/ 

IO 

IO 

/ 

/ 

// 

12 

/3 

/4- 

TOTAL 

/4 

/O 

7 

13 

8 

6 

3 

/ 

62 

The  matter  is  summed  up  by  saying  that  the  typical  high-grade 
feeble-minded  child  will,  provided  he  remains  in  school  until  the  age  of 
15  or  16  years,  reach  the  sixth  or  seventh,  occasionally  even  the  eighth 
grade.  In  almost  no  case,  however,  will  he  be  found  doing  satisfactory 
work  in  any  grade  above  the  fourth  or  fifth. 

Nationality  of  the  Feeble-minded.  The  following  table  will  be 
found  significant : 

TABLE  9.     Showing  Relation  of  Fcebte-Mindedness  to  Birthplace  of  7V/;-r»/.v. 


Birthplace  of  parents 

Percentage  of  each 
nationality  in 
"Y"  city  and 
rural  schools, 
per  cent  

United  States  
Portugal    and 
Azores   

Italy 

56.4 

11.4 
11.6 

These  furnished  24.2  per  cent  of  the  feeble-minded 

These  furnished  17.7  per  cent  of  the  feeble-minded 
These  furnished  11  3  per  cent  of  the  feeble-minded 

28 

These  furnished  145  per  cent  of  the  feeble-minded 

China  and  Japan-- 
Miscellaneous*   

1.06 
16.6 

These  furnished  0  per  cent  of  the  feeble-minded 
These  furnished  32.2  per  cent  of  the  feeble-minded 

"Mostly  Western  European. 


SURVEYS   IN   MENTAL  DEVIATION.  35 

Examination  of  the  above  table  reveals  a  number  of  interesting 
facts:  (1)  43.6  per  cent  of  the  children  have  both  parents  foreign 
born;  of  those  found  feeble-minded  75.7  per  cent  had  foreign-born 
parents.  It  is  evident  therefore  that  much  of  the  feeble-mindedness 
in  this  country  is  due  to  the  immigration  of  undesirable  types. 
Further  analysis  shows,  however,  that  feeble-mindedness  is  especially 
common  among  the  Spanish,  Portuguese  and  Western  European 
nationalities.  Although  the  Spanish  embrace  less  than  3  per  cent  of 
the  school  population,  they  include  14.5  per  cent  of  the  feeble-minded. 

The  question  arises  whether  this  high  percentage  could  possibly  have 
been  due  to  language  difficulties  involved  in  testing  children  of  another 
nationality  with  an  American  version  of  the  Binet  scale.  When  a 
subject's  knowledge  of  English  is  so  limited  as  to  interfere  with  the 
.comprehension  of  the  tasks  given  in  the  tests,  or  with  his  ability  to 
express  his  thoughts  in  response  to  the  questions  asked,  then,  of  course, 
the  test  becomes  unfair  and  misleading.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  how- 
ever, practically  all  the  children  tested  who  were  of  foreign  parentage 
had  lived  in  the  United  States  a  number  of  years,  the  majority  of  them, 
indeed,  all  their  lives.  Most  of  them  understood  English  as  perfectly 
as  their  intelligence  would  allow.  Having  foreign-born  parents  does 
not  of  itself  constitute  a  serious  handicap  to  the  school  progress  or 
mental  development  of  the  normal  child.  This  has  been  statistically 
demonstrated  in  the  extensive  investigations  by  Leonard  P.  Ayres 
and  others.  Every  city  superintendent  knows  that  children  from 
German  homes,  for  example,  starting  to  school  in  complete  ignorance 
of  the  English  language,  are  usually  able  to  pass  from  grade  to  grade 
as  regularly  as  children  who  have  spoken  English  from  the  cradle. 
The  mental  deficiency  of  those  we  have  classified  as  feeble-minded  is 
convincingly  shown  not  only  by  the  tests,  but  by  their  utter  inability 
to  do  the  kind  of  school  work  which  is  possible  even  to  dull-normals, 
by  the  frequent  records  of  truancy  and  delinquency,  and  in  some 
cases  by  facts  regarding  their  heredity. 

In  the  examination  of  our  own. data  we  find  that  when  a  Portuguese 
or  Mexican  child  really  has  superior  intelligence  this  fact  appears  both 
in  the  intelligence  tests  and  in  the  child's  ability  to  advance  in  school, 
regardless  of  home  conditions.  In  an  intensive  comparison  which  a 
Stanford  University  student  is  making  between  the  intelligence  of 
American  and  Portuguese  children  in  the  schools  of  another  county, 
the  Portuguese  children  are  found  markedly  inferior.  Dr.  J.  Harold 
Williams  at  the  Whittier  State  School  has  data  which  indicate  that  a 
large  proportion  both  of  the  Portuguese  and  of  the  Mexican  population 
in  Southern  California  is  of  extremely  low  mentality.  It  is  no  wonder 
therefore  that  these  nationalities  are  present  in  the  reform  schools  and 


36  STATE   BOARD   OF    CHARITIES   AXD    CORRECTIONS. 

state  prisons  in  far  greater  proportion  than  their  numbers  in  the  state 
would  seem  to  warrant. 

Occupation  of  Fathers.  All  the  children  of  "Y"  City  and  the  rural 
schools  were  classified  according  to  the  occupation  of  the  father.  For 
this  purpose  a  scale  of  5  was  used  corresponding  as  closely  as  possible 
to  that  outlined  by  Professor  Taussig.  According  to  this  classification, 
the  professional  and  high-grade  commercial  classes  are  rated  as  1,  the 
absolutely  unskilled  laborers  as  5.  Class  4  includes  semiskilled  laborers ; 
class  3,  the  regular  skilled  laborers  of  various  types;  class  2,  ordinary 
trades  people,  the  higher  clerks,  ordinary  teachers,  etc.  The  following 
table  is  significant : 

Occupational     Status. 

TABLE    10.     Showing   Relation    of   F<  •  I>1<- Min<l< <],ir«ft    in    r////,/r«i/    to    Occupational 
status  of   Their  Fathers.      (Class  1   Is  Highest;   Class  5,  Lowest.) 


•   1 

classification  of  total  enrollment  by  oc- 
cupational status 

621 

Percent 
16.75 

Per  cent 
21.24 

Per  cent 
38.9 

Per  cent 
16.9 

Classification  of  feeble-minded  by  occu- 
pational status  _  .  .  

0 

1.78 

16.05 

50 

32.2 

Percentage  in  each  occupational  group 
rated  by  teachers  as  below  average  in 
intelligence  

5.06 

6.58  ! 

9.64 

15.55 

21.4 

It  is  evident  from  the  above  figures  that  feeble-minded  children  come 
far  more  often  from  the  lower  than  from  the  higher  occupational 
groups.  This  is  abundantly  supported  by  many  other  researches, 
notably  those  of  Davenport  and  Goddard.  Although  feeble-mindedness 
appears  occasionally  in  the  higher  occupational  groups,  the  large 
majority  of  cases  are  found  in  the  lower  social  classes.  The  difference 
is  almost  entirely  an  index  of  the  difference  between  the  two  groups  in 
heredity,  as  environment  and  accidental  factors  account  for  only  a  small 
minority  of  the  total  cases  of  feeble-mindedness  in  a  population.  The 
high  per  cent  of  feeble-mindedness  in  "X"  County,  or  at  least  in  the 
tested  areas  of  the  county,  does  not  hold  for  the  population  in  general 
but  is  due  to  the  presence  of  a  rather  large  number  of  families  in  which 
feeble-mindsdness  is  hereditary.  In  fact,  18  families  accounted  for 
more  than  half  of  the  91  feeble-minded  and  borderzone  cases  tested. 
Two  related  branches  of  one  family  (children  cousins)  accounted  for 
22  per  cent  of  the  feeble-minded  in  the  rural  schools. 

The  following  are  samples  of  the  families  appearing  in  the  survey : 
Family  K.     Mother  feeble-minded;  father  alcoholic   (and  probably 
feeble-minded).     Ten  children,  most  if  not  all  of  wrhom  are  feeble- 
minded.    Family  lives  in  one  or  two  rooms  having  no  windows.     Two 


SURVEYS   IN    MENTAL   DEVIATION.  37 

sons  tested  by  us,  aged  13  and  14  years,  were  feeble-minded.  One  was 
a  disciplinary  case  at  school,  the  other  had  been  in  the  reform  school. 
Two  older  brothers  had  also  been  in  the  reform  school  and  the  truant 
officer  reports  constant  trouble  with  the  family.  This  family  is  tww 
receiving  $25  per  month  as  poor  relief,  which  amounts  to  a  subsidy  for 
the  breeding  of  mental  deficiency. 

Families  C  and  B.  The  children  of  these  two  families  are  cousins, 
12  of  them  altogether,  of  whom  10  were  tested  in  this  survey  and  found 
to  be  one  and  all  feeble-minded.  One  of  the  grandmothers  is  insane. 
The  C  and  B  children,  in  contrast  with  those  of  family  K,  have  thus 
far  not  shown  serious  tendencies  to  delinquency;  but  this  may  be  due 
to  the  fact  that  they  live  in  an  isolated  rural  community  while  the 
former  live  in  "Y"  City. 

Family  W.  Three  bothers,  two  of  whom  (defectives)  were  tested  in 
this  survey.  All  three  have  been  in  the  reform  school,  two  for  truancy, 
the  other  for  horse  stealing.  These  boys  have  always  caused  trouble, 
in  school  and  out. 

Family  M.  Home  conditions  deplorable ;  mother  feeble-minded ;  two 
children,  tested  in  this  survey,  are  both  of  imbecile  grade.  The  family 
is  at  present  receiving  $20.50  per  month  as  state  and  county  aid. 

Some  Difficult  Schools. 

Rural  School  A.  Pupils  enrolled,  41.  Of  these,  18  were  so  over-age 
and  were  rated  so  low  by  the  teacher  as  to  be  classed  as  suspects.  Of 
the  18  tested,  13  were  feeble-minded  and  3  of  borderline  intelligence. 
One  family  furnished  6  of  the  feeble-minded,  another  4.  The  children 
of  these  two  families  were  cousins.  Three  children  in  the  two  families 
were  not  tested;  all  are  probably  feeble-minded.  One  family  bore  an 
Irish,  the  other  an  English  name.  Of  the  remaining  cases,  3  were  from 
one  Italian  family  and  2  from  a  Portuguese  family.  The  school  enrolls 
one  pupil  in  the  first  grade  who  is  10  years  old  and  who  has  been  in 
that  grade  for  four  years.  Two  other  pupils  have  completed  only  two 
grades  in  the  six  years  they  have  attended.  They  are  now  at  the  age  of 
nearly  13  years  in  the  low  third  grade  and  are  doing  unsatisfactory 
work  there.  Another  who  is  16  years  old  and  in  the  seventh  grade, 
has  only  nine-year  intelligence  and  has  been  promoted  to  his  present 
grade  only  because  of  age.  His  intelligence  is  barely  equal  to  fourth 
grade  work. 

What  shall  we  say  of  this  teacher's  task?  That  it  is  impossible  is 
evident  enough.  The  teacher  of  a  special  class  of  backward  children  in 
a  city  school  system  is  rarely  expected  to  handle  more  than  15  pupils. 
This  teacher  has  6  feeble-minded  and  borderzone  cases !  What  can  she 
accomplish  for  her  25  normal  pupils? 


38  STATE  BOARD   OF    CHARITIES   AND    CORRECTIONS. 

Rural  School  B.  Eighty-four  pupils,  3  teachers.  Of  the  12  children 
tested  as  suspects,  4  were  feeble-minded,  5  were  borderzone  cases,  and  3 
were  dull-normal.  One  family  furnished  a  moron  and  a  borderliner; 
another  furnished  a  moron,  a  borderliner  and  a  dull-normal.  A  moron 
girl  in  this  school  has  an  insane  mother.  The  girl  herself  is  normal- 
looking  and  attractive  and  is  already  at  the  beginning  of  the  repro- 
ductive period. 

The  principal  of  this  school  stated  that  he  was  faced  by  a  very  diffi- 
cult administrative  problem  because  of  the  large  number  of  backward 
children  and  ignorant  parents.  Of  the  84  children  in  the  school,  40 
are  of  parents  who  had  come  from  the  Azores.  Seven  of  the  40  were 
tested  and  5  of  these  were  either  feeble-minded  or  of  borderzone 
intelligence. 

Rural  School  C.  Two  feeble-minded  and  one  borderliner  in  an  enroll- 
ment of  21  pupils.  The  two  feeble-minded  childern  are  sisters. 

Room  P,  City  "Y."  This  is  a  fourth  grade  class  enrolling  39  pupils, 
23  of  whom  are  over-age  for  their  grade.  Five  of  these  are  from  three 
to  five  years  retarded.  The  ages  of  the  39  pupils  range  from  9  years 
to  16  years !  Of  5  suspects  tested  in  this  room,  2  were  feeble-minded 
and  3  borderzone  cases.  Another,  the  lowest  of  all  according  to  the 
teacher's  estimate,  was  absent  and  could  not  be  tested. 

Room  Q,  City  "Y."  This  is  also  a  fourth  grade  class  and  enrolls  46 
pupils  from  9  to  14  years  of  age.  The  10  who  were  tested  as  suspects 
yielded  4  feeble-minded,  2  borderzone  cases,  and  4  dull-normals.  One 
of  the  feeble-minded  had  been  to  reform  school. 

Room  R,  City  "Y,"  enrolls  45  pupils  in  the  second,  third,  and  low- 
fourth  grades.  Of  the  8  suspects  tested,  all  were  feeble-minded.  Two 
of  these  .were  brother  and  sister,  and  another  brother  of  these  is  a  border- 
zone  child  under  another  teacher.  Of  the  8  feeble-minded  children,  7 
are  known  to  have  feeble-minded  relatives.  The  ages  of  these  second 
grade  pupils  range  from  7  to  nearly  14  years,  10  being  over-age  for  the 
grade  and  5  as  much  as  three  years  over-age.  Of  the  23  pupils  enrolled 
in  the  third  grade,  5  are  three  years  over-age.  The  10  pupils  in  the 
low-fourth  range  in  age  from  9  to  almost  16  years. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  the  teacher  in  this  room  complained  about 
the  difficulty  of  holding  the  attention  of  the  children  and  adjusting  the 
work  to  their  individual  needs. 


SURVEYS   IN   MENTAL   DEVIATION. 


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42  STATE   BOARD   OP    CHARITIES   AND    CORRECTIONS. 

The  Burden  of  Feeble-mindedness. 

We  have  elsewhere*  estimated  the  annual  cost  of  feeble-mindedness 
in  the  state  of  California  at  $5,000.000.  This  is  probably  a  minimum 
figure.  On  this  basis  "X"  County's  share  of  the  burden  would  be 
over  $60,000  annually.  It  is  of  course  impossible  to  itemize  the  cost 
to  the  last  detail,  but  the  following  facts  will  indicate  in  some  degree 
the  extent  of  the  problem. 

During  the  last  year  "X"  County  devoted  $42,955  to  poor  relief, 
including  poor  farm,  a  large  part  of  this  sum  going  to  the  support  of 
individuals  whose  dependency  is  due  to  mental  deficiency.  The 
immediate  families  of  children  tested  in  this  survey  are  receiving  a 
total  of  $1,440  per  year  as  poor  relief. 

Again.  "X"  County  handles  each  year,  at  considerable  expense,  a 
large  number  of  cases  in  its  juvenile  court,  probably  30  per  cent  of 
whom  are  feeble-minded.  At  least  ttventy-four  of  the  children  tested 
in  this  survey  Jiad  either  Jiad  juvenile  court  experience  or  had  come 
in  contact  with  the  probation  officer,  ivhile  a  few  had  already  gradu- 
ated from  the  reform  school.  Others  of  our  cases,  now  too  young  to 
make  trouble,  are  certain  to  follow  the  same  road  within  a  few  years. 

If  we  could  accurately  itemize  such  costs  as  relief  for  indigent  and 
dependent  defectives,  expenditures  for  court  proceedings  and  proba- 
tion work  for  feeble-minded  delinquents,  depredations  committed  by 
defective  delinquents,  expense  to  the  state  of  feeble-minded  indi- 
viduals in  the  prisons,  reform  schools,  and  Sonoma  State  Home  for  the 
feeble-minded,  and  finally  the  inoiiej'-  which  is  worse  than  wasted  in 
the  futile  attempt  to  educate  feeble-minded  children  in  the  public 
schools  of  the  county  (last  item  at  least  $40  by  200,  or  $8,000, 
annually),  we  should  probably  have  a  total  considerably  in  excess  of 
the  above-mentioned,  estimate  of  $60,000  as  the  total  cost  of  feeble- 
mindedness to  the  people  of  "X"  County. 

Finally,  we  have  not  included  in  these  estimates  the  losses  accruing 
from  vocational  unfitness,  alcoholism,  venereal  disease,  and  prostitu- 
tion among  the  defective  population.  It  would  not  be  surprising  if 
these  losses,  although  less  tangible  and  altogether  impossible  to  esti- 
mate accurately,  were  as  great  as  all  the  other  losses  combined.  Nor 
have  we  included  the  cost  of  keeping  a  certain  number  of  defectives 
in  private  homes,  or  the  cost  of  the  county's  fifteen  to  thirty-five 
epileptics  and  one  hundred  or  more  insane. 


*See  Report  of  California  Legislative  Committ£3  on  the  Care  of  the  Feeble-minded. 
Superintendent  Fred  Nelles,  Chairman.     Chapter  by  Lewis  M.  Terman. 


SURVEYS   IN    MENTAL   DEVIATION.  43 

What  Should  Be  Done? 
This  question  answers  itself  if  four  facts  are  borne  in  mind : 

(1)  That  feeble-mindedness  is  incurable; 

(2)  That  it  is  a  condition  which  can  be  readily  diagnosed  by  suit- 
able tests  in  children  of  school  age; 

(3)  That  in  the  large  majority  of  cases  it  is  caused  by  heredity; 

(4)  That  the  permanent  segregation  of  all  feeble-minded  individuals 
throughout  the  period  of  reproduction  would  quickly  extinguish  the 
defective  strains  which  now  encumber  our  prisons,   reform  schools, 
jails,  courts,  and  public  schools. 

The  first  step  in  this  direction  should  be  the  establishment  of  an 
additional  state  home  for  the  feeble-minded,  preferably  one  planned 
especially  for  defectives  of  moron  grade.  Such  an  institution  would 
-save  to  the  state  every  year  many  times  the  cost  of  its  support.* 

As  regards  the  public  schools  of  "X"  County,  the  immediate 
problem  is  extremely  difficult  as  well  as  urgent.  There  is  at  present 
no  possibility  of  turning  over  to  the  care  of  the  state  the  two  hundred 
or  more  feeble-minded  children  whom  they  enroll.  If  there  were 
institutions  to  receive  them,  this  would  be  the  ideal  solution.  The 
public  school  could  then  turn  its  attention  to  the  backward  and 
borderzone  cases,  who,  by  appropriate  training  along  vocational  and 
practical  lines,  can  usually  be  made  self-supporting  and  prevented 
from  becoming  a  menace  to  society. 

In  the  schools  of  "X"  County  there  are  at  least  two  hundred  other 
children  who  are  not  feeble-minded,  but  who  are  of  such  inferior 
mentality  that  they  can  not  profit  anything  like  normally  from  the 
ordinary  methods  of  instruction.  These  repeaters  clog  the  educational 
machinery;  they  take  an  undue  proportion  of  the  teacher's  time;  they 
pull  down  the  standard  of  achievement  for  the  other  children;  and 
after  successive  failures  they  become  discouraged  and  leave  school 
to  become  industrial  failures  or  to  drift  into  pauperism,  alcoholism, 
or  crime.  For  such  children  approximately  twelve  special  classes  are 
needed  in  "X"  County,  classes  which  would  throw  the  emphasis 
upon  vocational  and  moral  training  rather  than  upon  instruction  in 
the  usual  abstractions  of  the  last  grammar  grades.  The  city  of  "Y" 
needs  from  two  to  three  such  classes  and  the  rural  schools  at  least  two. 

Until  permanent  custodial  care  is  available  for  the  feeble-minded 
children  of  the  county,  these  should  be  segregated  in  additional 
special  classes.  This  would  double  the  above  estimate  of  the  number 
of  special  classes  needed. 

The  plan  of  establishing  special  classes  is  simple  enough  in  the 
cities  but  impossible  for  the  rural  schools  under  the  present  district 


•Since  the  above  was  written  an  additional  institution  has  been  provided  for  by  the 
state  legislature  It  will  he  located  in  southern  California,  near  Los  Angeles.  The 
Initial  appropriation  was  $250,000. 


44  STATE   BOARD   OF    CIIARITIES   AND    CORRECTIONS. 

school  system.  If  the  county  system  were  adopted  and  rural  schools 
were  consolidated,  as  has  been  done  in  many  Eastern  states,  the  back- 
ward children  now  attending  rural  schools  could  be  provided  for  in 
special  classes.  Consolidation  of  most  of  the  rural  schools  of  "X" 
County  would  be  possible  and  advantageous  in  every  way.  Until  such 
consolidation  has  been  effected,  the  rural  schools  will  doubtless  con- 
tinue their  present  ineffective  work  with  backward  children. 

SUMMARY. 

1.  Data  were  collected  from  the  grade  teachers  in  all  but  a  few  of 
the  public  schools  of  "X"  County,  California.     The  data  included  for 
each   child   enrolled   the   following   items:    Name,    age,    grade,    years 
attended  school,  quality  of  school  work  (rated  on  a  scale  of  5).  intelli- 
gence   (rated  on  a  scale  of  5),  birthplace  of  each  parent,   cause  of 
retardation  where  retardation  was  present. 

2.  On  the  basis  of  these  returns  nearly  all  the  children  in  the  rural 
schools  and  in  "Y"   City  who  were  making  exceptionally  unsatis- 
factory school  progress  were  given  a  mental  test,  including  174,  or  15 
per  cent  of  those  enrolled. 

3.  Of  the  174  subjects  tested,  62  were  certainly  feeble-minded  and 
29  others  were  classed  as  borderzone  cases. 

4.  The  feeble-minded  amounted  to  4.24  per  cent  of  the  total  enroll- 
ment of  these  schools ;  the  borderzone  cases  to  1.98  per  cent. 

5.  The  probable  number  of  feeble-minded  in  the  remaining  cities  of 
the  county  was  estimated  by  comparing  the  age-grade  distribution  and 
the  teachers'  ratings  of  the  children  in  those  cities  with  the  age-grade 
distribution  and  the  ratings  in  "Y"  City  and  in  the  rural  schools.    On 
this  basis  of  reckoning  it  appears  that  about  3£  per  cent  of  the  school 
children  in  those  cities  also  are  feeble-minded. 

6.  In  a  separate  investigation  51  kindergarten  children  Avere  tested, 
including  all  who  were  enrolled  in  three  of  the  six  kindergartens  of 
"X"    County.     Two   of   these,    or   approximately   4   per   cent,    were 
feeble-minded. 

7.  One  explanation  of  these  exceptionally  high  figures  is  the  fact 
that  in  the  case  of  nearly  half  of  the  children  both  the  parents  were 
foreign  born,  among  whom  the  percentage  of  feeble-mi ndedness  was 
extraordinarily  high.     This  was  particularly  true  of  the  Spanish  and 
the  Portuguese.     The  ratio  of  feeble-mindedness  among  children  of 
American  parentage  was  only  1.9  per  cent,   a  figure  which   agrees 
closely  with  the  results  of  most  other  investigations. 

8.  Eighteen  families  were  found  who  were  represented  by  two  or 
more  feeble-minded  children.     These  18  families  furnished  51.6  per 
cent   of   the    91    feeble-minded    and   borderzone    cases.     Two    related 


SURVEYS   IN   MENTAL  DEVIATION.  45 

branches  of  one  family  (children  cousins)  furnished  more  than  one- 
fifth  of  the  feeble-minded  children  in  the  rural  schools. 

9.  Occupational  ratings  of  the  fathers  on  a  scale  of  5,  following 
the  method  of  Professor  Taussig,  showed  that  a  large  majority  of  the 
feeble-minded  children  belong  to  the  lower  social  classes,  82  per  cent 
having  fathers  below  the  grade  of  ordinary  skilled  laborers. 

10.  Of  the  62  classified  as  feeble-minded,  44,  or  55  per  cent,  were 
boys ;  38,  or  45  per  cent,  girls. 

11.  Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  feeble-minded  children  were 
for  the  most  part  from  two  to  five  years  over-age  for  their  grade,  nearly 
all  of  them  were  located  in  a  grade  above  that  corresponding  to  their 
mental  age. 

12.  Teachers  often  fail  to  recognize  feeble-minded  children,  and  this 
'is  traceable  chiefly  to  the  failure  to  understand  the  significance  of  over- 

ageness.  If  a  12-year-old  child  with  a  mental  age  of  8  years  (feeble- 
minded) is  doing  fair  work  in  the  second  grade,  the  teacher  may  rate 
the  child  as  only  slightly  inferior  in  intelligence. 

13.  The  reasons  assigned  by  the  teachers  as  the  causes  of  the  children 's 
failure  to  make  normal  school  progress  were  in  a  majority  of  cases 
irrelevant. 

14.  One  rural  school  with  41  children  has  13  who  are  feeble-minded. 
This  is  approximately  a  third  of  all  the  feeble-minded  pupils  in  all  the 
rural  schools  of  "X"  County.     Another  room  in  the  city  of  "Y"  has  8. 
Feeble-minded  children  are  an  intolerable  burden  to  many  teachers  of 
"X"  County  and  are  monopolizing  much  attention  which  should  go  to 
normal   children.     The  hopelessly  feeble-minded  should  be   removed 
from  the  public  schools  and  placed  under  permanent  custodial  care. 
For  the  less  backward  cases  special  classes  should  be  provided. 

15.  That  most  of  these  feeble-minded  may  be  considered  potential 
delinquents  is  indicated  by  the  fact  that  many  of  them  have  already 
had  juvenile  court  experience  and  that  others  are  disciplinary  cases  in 
the  schools. 

16.  It  is  estimated  that  the  annual  cost  to  "X"  County  of  its  feeble- 
minded is  not  less  than  $60,000.    Much  goes  to  monthly  relief  payments 
to  feeble-minded  families,  which  are  thus  enabled  to  reproduce  their 
kind.     Money  thus  spent  is  in  effect  a  subsidy  for  the  breeding  of  feeble- 
mindedness. 


46  STATE   BOARD   OF    CHARITIES   AND    CORRECTIONS. 

THE  INTELLIGENCE  OF  ORPHAN  CHILDREN  AND  UNWED 
MOTHERS    IN    CALIFORNIA    CHARITABLE 
INSTITUTIONS. 


A    SURVEY    BY    THE    RESEARCH    STAFF    OF 
WHITTIER  STATE   SCHOOL. 

I.  Introductory. 

Nature  and  Purpose  of  Survey.  The  data  here  presented  were 
obtained  at  the  request  of  the  California  State  Board  of  Charities  and 
Corrections,  with  a  view  to  ascertaining  the  conditions  among  certain 
dependent  classes  with  reference  to  mental  development.  The  report 
of  the  board  for  the  year  ending  June  10,  1916,  indicated  that  there 
were  at  that  time  5,324  children  in  private  institutions  under  state 
supervision.  In  addition  to  these,  many  young  unmarried  mothers  have 
been  cared  for  in  private  maternity  homes,  which  are  also  under  the 
supervision  of  the  board.  Just  what  proportion  of  these  children  and 
mothers  are  likely  to  develop  into  useful  law-abiding  citizens,  how  many 
are  likely  to  continue  to  be  state  charges,  and  what  social  conditions 
are  contributing  most  to  the  apparently  increasing  stream  of  public 
dependents,  are  among  the  problems  wrhich  have  thus  far  been  unsolved. 
It  is  the  purpose  of  this  report  to  present  data  concerning  the  mental 
development  of  an  unselected  group  in  California  of  these  dependent 
persons.  It  is  believed  that  much  of  what  has  been  learned  will  apply 
in  a  general  way  to  the  population  of  similar  institutions  throughout 
the  state,  and  that  the  gathering  of  such  data  will  aid  materially  in 
understanding  the  social  problems  with  which  dependency  is  associated. 

The  intelligence  tests  were  given  by  the  director  of  research  of 
Whittier  State  School,  who  was  assisted  by  other  members  of  the 
research  staff  in  gathering  and  compiling  the  supplementary  data. 
Mr.  Karl  M.  Cowdery,  the  field-worker  for  the  department,  gathered 
most  of  the  information  with  reference  to  family  history.  Superin- 
tendent Fred  C.  Nelles  of  Whittier  State  School  has  cooperated  in 
arranging  for  the  extension  of  the  research  work  to  other  institutions. 

Cooperation  of  Institutions.  Throughout  the  study  the  research  staff 
has  met  with  the  hearty  and  intelligent  cooperation  of  institution  offi- 
cials, to  many  of  whom  the  use  of  intelligence  tests  and  the  systematic 
inquiry  into  the  conditions  related  to  dependency  have  opened  a  new 
and  important  line  of  interest.  Several  institution  heads  have  expressed 
the  hope  that  the  kind  of  assistance  rendered  by  the  present  survey  may 
continue  to  be  available.  This  spirit  of  cooperation  in  the  study  of 


SURVEYS   IN   MENTAL   DEVIATION.  47 

child  welfare  problems  is  highly  valued  by  those  who  are  engaged  in 
researches  of  this  kind.  Modern  institution  work  demands  all  the 
guidance  that  can  be  obtained  through  systematic  analysis  and  classifi- 
cation. The  behavior,  social  development,  school  progress  and  future 
success  of  children  are  very  largely  dependent  upon  intellectual,  moral 
and  physical  factors. 

Scope  of  the  Survey.  The  work  has  covered  five  institutions,  four  of 
which  (A,  B,  C,  D)  are  homes  for  dependent  children.  The  fifth  insti- 
tution (E)  is  a  maternity  home  for  unwed  mothers.  For  purposes  of 
convenience  these  letters  will  be  used  in  referring  to  the  institutions 
studied.  In  all,  162  cases  were  studied,  which  are  believed  to  be  fairly 
representative  of  these  two  dependent  classes,  so  far  as  concerns 
California  institutions. 

An  individual  clinical  examination  was  held  for  each  case,  and  the 
test  results  later  analyzed  and  compared  in  the  light  of  supplementary 
field  data.  The  examinations  were  recorded  verbatim  by  an  assistant, 
from  thirty  minutes  to  an  hour  being  required  for  each.  The  field- 
work  consisted  in  personal  interviews  and  a  careful  searching  of  records. 
With  a  few  exceptions  the  record  of  each  individual  case  included  the 
following : 

1.  Intelligence  examination. 

2.  Record  of  physical  and  medical  history. 

3.  Data  on  heredity,  including  family  chart. 

4.  Data  on  early  environmental  conditions. 

5.  Data  on  school  progress. 

6.  Data  on  conduct  in  and  out  of  institution. 
The  data  will  be  discussed  under  appropriate  headings. 

II.  The  Intelligence  Tests. 

What  tests  were  used  ?  The  Binet-Simon  Scale  for  Measuring  Intelli- 
gence was  used  in  all  cases.  The  nature  and  reliability  of  this  method 
hardly  needs  introduction  to  those  who  are  likely  to  read  this  report. 
Tests  of  thousands  of  children  in  many  countries  have  shown  the 
superiority  of  this  over  all  other  methods  for  determining  the  general 
level  of  intelligence.  The  Binet-Simon  Scale  is  particularly  adaptable 
to  a  survey  of  this  kind  for  several  reasons:  (a)  the  purpose  of  its  use 
is  to  measure  the  general  level  of  intelligence;  (&)  tests  are  not  confined 
to  one  or  two  mental  faculties;  (c)  the  grading  of  the  tests  permits  the 
comparison  of  the  subject  with  unselected  persons  of  the  same  age; 
(d)  satisfactory  showing  in  the  tests  does  not  depend  too  largely  upon 
school  instruction,  and  thence  they  may  be  used  with  persons  whose 
schooling  has  been  neglected  or  interrupted;  (e)  the  tests  are  interest- 
ing; children  seldom  fail  to  cooperate  to  the  fullest  extent  when  the 


48  STATE   BOARD   OF    CHARITIES   AND    CORRECTIONS. 

proper  experimental  conditions  are  afforded,  and  the  tests  correctly 
given;  (/)  the  tests  allow  for  the  expression  of  intelligence  from  many 
different  angles,  thus  giving  useful  insight  into  the  subject's  probable 
reactions  when  confronted  with  a  new  situation;  (#)  the  scale  includes 
the  tests  for  the  higher  mental  faculties  (reasoning,  judgment,  compre- 
hension, etc.)  which  are  so  important  in  the  struggle  for  success  in  life. 
The  Stanford  (1916)  Revision  of  the  Scale,  which  was  used  in  this 
study,  is  the  latest  and  most  accurately  standardized  form  in  which 
the  tests  have  appeared.  Dr.  Lewis  M.  Terman,  the  author  of  this 
revision,  has  done  a  great  deal  of  careful  work  in  extending  and 
supplementing  the  tests  and  refining  the  method  of  procedure.  His 
extension  of  the  scale  to  the  adult  levels  has  made  possible  the  com- 
parison of  the  unwed  mothers  with  ordinary  unselected  adults.  The 
"years  and  months"  method  of  expressing  the  intelligence  level  is 
another  feature  which  adds  to  the  value  and  accuracy  of  the  test 
results.  In  view  of  the  results  of  other  recent  comparative  studies,  we 
may  safely  expect  the  test  results  in  this  survey  to  be  as  reliable  as  the 
present  status  of  intelligence  testing  will  permit. 


FIG.   1.     Distribution   of  ages   and   mental   ages   of   150   orphan   children.     Continuous 
line  represents  chronological  age;  dotted  line,  mental  age. 

The  Mental  Ages.  The  results  of  150  tests  of  orphan  children, 
arranged  by  half-year  mental  ages,  are  shown  in  Fig.  1.  The  actual 
(chronological)  ages  of  these  children,  represented  by  the  continuous 
line,  range  from  4  to  17|  years.  The  mental  ages  (dotted  line)  range 
from  2  to  17  years.  The  median  chronological  age  is  10£  years;  the 
median  mental  age  is  9  years.  This  represents  a  group  retardation 
of  1£  years  from  what  might  be  expected  of  an  equal  number  of 
children  of  the  same  ages  selected  at  random  from  the  public  schools. 
This  does  not  mean,  of  course,  that  all  of  the  children  tested  below  age. 
More  than  one-half  tested  up  to  their  own  ages  or  above.  The  pres- 
ence of  a  somewhat  larger  proportion  of  feeble-minded  and  borderline 
cases  than  can  be  found  in  the  general  population  brings  the  average 
slightly  below  that  for  unselected  school  children. 

Tests  of  twelve  unwed  mothers,  being  the  total  enrollment  in  Institu- 
tion E,  and  a  group  representative  of  the  young  women  usually 
admitted,  resulted  in  finding  mental  ages  much  below  the  chronological 
ages.  The  data  for  these  cases  are  shown  in  Table  III.  Ranging  in 


SURVEYS   IN   MENTAL  DEVIATION.  49 

actual  age  from  12  to  21  years,  the  mental  ages  of  these  unwed  mothers 
run  as  low  as  7-J  years.  Here  the  average  is  much  lower  than  would 
be  expected  of  an  equal  number  of  young  women  selected  at  random 
from  the  population  from  which  these  mothers  came.  Here  again  the 
presence  of  feeble-minded  girls  brings  the  average  level  of  intelligence 
down.  The  median  mental  age  is  but  12  years,  although  all  but  two  of 
the  women  are  chronologically  and  physicially  adults. 

The  mental  age  is  a  highly  significant  factor  in  mental  development. 
Careful  observations  of  children  and  young  adults  have  shown  that 
within  certain  limits  we  may  expect  most  individuals  to  react  socially, 
industrially  and  morally  in  very  close  accord  with  their  mental  ages. 
Our  case  No.  1  among  the  unwed  mothers,  for  example,  although 
actually  17  years  of  age,  has  always  behaved  like  a  child.  Her  intel- 
'  lectual  activity  is  more  like  that  of  a  child  between  7  and  8  years  than 
like  that  of  most  young  women  of  17.  She  has  never  been  able  to 
advance  very  far  in  school,  and  for  several  years  has  been  in  the 
ungraded  room.  Her  mental  age  is  a  practical  and  reliable  index 
of  her  ability  to  meet  the  ordinary  problems  of  life.  It  is  fully  as 
unreasonable  to  expect  one  of  her  intelligence  to  meet  them  with 
ordinary  success  as  to  expect  such  a  performance  from  a  child  of  8 
years.  Yet  up  to  the  time  of  the  survey,  few  persons  had  suspected 
that  this  young  woman  was  feeble-minded.  It  was  generally  conceded 
that  she  was  "very  dull,"  but  just  how  dull,  how  far  she  is  likely  to 
develop,  and  whether  or  not  she  might  reasonably  be  placed  upon  her 
own  responsibility  are  matters  which  had  been  given  but  little  atten- 
tion. Xow  that  this  information  is  available,  the  decision  is  not 
difficult  to  render.  Many  similar  cases  testify  to  the  value  of  mental 
age  as  an  indicator  of  the  probable  degree  of  social  success. 

The  Intelligence  Quotients.  The  mental  age  of  a  subject  is  of 
significance  only  when  considered  in  its  ratio  to  the  subject's  chrono- 
logical age.  To  say  that  a  child  tests  7  years  by  the  Binet-Simon 
scale  means  nothing  unless  we  know  how  old  the  child  is,  and  hence 
what  mental  age  to  expect.  If  he  were  5  years  of  age,  for  example, 
the  mental  age  of  7  would  indicate  marked  superiority  over  other 
children.  If  he  were  10  years  of  age,  the  mental  age  of  7  would 
indicate  the  serious  retardation  of  30  per  cent.  Thus  it  is  necessary 
to  consider  these  ages  in  the  light  of  their  percentage  ratio.  This  ratio 
between  the  chronological  and  mental  age  is  known  as  the  Intelligence 
Quotient  (usually  designated  by  the  abbreviation  I.  Q.).  Children 
and  adults  who  are  of  average-normal  intelligence  almost  without 
exception  test  within  a  few  points  of  100  per  cent.  Extensive  experi- 
mentation has  shown  that  most  persons  who  fall  below  75  per  cent 
(that  is,  who  have  an  I.  Q.  of  .75  or  below)  are  so  intellectually 


50 


STATE    HOARD    OK    CIIARITIKS    AND    CORRECTIONS. 


inferior  to  the  general  population  as  to  warrant  their  removal  to  an 
institution  or  colony  for  the  feeble-minded,  where  the  burden  of  com- 
peting with  others  will  not  be  thrown  upon  them.  On  the  other  hand, 
children  and  adults  who  test  much  above  the  average  I.  Q.  of  1.00 
(say  1.10  or  higher)  and  who  are  not  handicapped  by  emotional  or 
temperamental  weaknesses,  may  usually  be  depended  upon  to  take 
their  places  with  better  than  average  success.  The  I.  Q.  is  a  highly 
reliable  index  of  social  success,  provided  it  is  properly  calculated  and 
correctly  interpreted. 


1Q... ..45-49  30-5*  55-59  60-6465-^9  7O-74  75-79  flOe4«5-<59  90-9495-99  IOO-fHOS-09  /0-J4.  15-  19  20-24 


FIG.   2.     Distribution  of  intelligence  quotients,   150  orphan   children.     Calculated   from 
the  mental  and  chronological  ages  shown  in  Fig.  1. 

The  distribution  of  I.  Q.'s  for  the  150  orphan  children  is  shown  in 
Fig.  2.  These  range  from  .45  to  1.22,  the  median  I.  Q.  being  .94.  This 
is  but  6  per  cent  below  the  median  found  by  Dr.  Terman  in  classifying 
1,000  unselected  children  in  the  public  schools  of  California.  It  is 
significant  that  the  median  falls  within  the  average-normal  group. 
There  are  relatively  fewer  superior  children  and  relatively  more 
feeble-minded  than  Dr.  Terman  found  in  the  public  schools,  as  will  be 
shown  in  the  discussion  of  the  social-intelligence  groups. 

TABLE  I.     Distribution  of  I.  Q.'s  by  Institution*.  Orphan*  a  ml  I  ////•<•</  Mother*. 


A 

B 

c 

D 



E 

Total 

45-49 

1 

1 

0 

50-54   

55-59   

1 

2 

1 

4 

60^4    

65-69   _ 

1 

2 

3 

70-74 

2 

1 

1 

1 

5 

75-79 

2 

2 

2 

1 

9 

q 

80-84 

5 

5 

3 

3 

16 

85-89 

7 

•> 

5 

5 

19 

90-94 

11 

4 

5 

5 

1 

26 

95-99   

13 

5 

3 

•) 

30 

100-104   

g 

1 

2 

2 

1 

14 

105-109   .  . 

9 

6 

1 

16 

110-114   

5 

4 

1 

10 

115-119        

2 

3 

1 

1 

120-124 

1 

1 

Totals 

66 

37 

95 

22 

]•> 

IfiO 

STKYKYS    IX    .MKXTAI.    1)1 


Table  I  shows  the  distribution  of  intelligence  quotients,  fimmgrd  in 
groups  of  five,  for  each  of  the  institutions  studied.  Thus  divided,  the 
number  for  each  institution  becomes  too  small  for  general  conclusions. 
but  inasmuch  as  the  children  tested  are  entirely  representative  in 
each  case,  any  I.  Q.  differences  are  significant.  It  will  be  seen  that 
Institution  B  falls  below  Institution  A.  and  that  E  is  lowest  of  all. 
Institutions  A  and  C  have  very  few  children  whose  I.  Q.  's  fall  within 
the  limits  of  definite  feeble-mindedness.  In  all  the  institutions  there 
are  cases  who  test  above  the  average  median  I.  Q.  of  1.00.  The  lowest 
I.  Q.  (.45)  was  found  in  Institution  B.  The  great  majority  of  rases 
in  all  of  the  children's  institutions  fall  within  the  average  limits  of 
.90  to  1.10.  The  average  adult  level  of  16  years  is  used  as  a  basis 
for  calculating  intelligence  quotients  of  adults.  This  standard  may  be 
taken  as  sufficiently  reliable  for  the  purposes  of  this  study. 

The  Social-Intelligence  Groups. — For  convenience  of  discussion,  the 
cases  have  been  divided  into  five  general  groups.  These  may  be 
designated  social-intelligence  groups,  for  they  represent  intelligence  as 
expressed  in  the  social  sense,  i.  c.,  the  extent  to  which  the  subject  is 
mentally  capable  of  "managing  himself  and  his  affairs  with  ordinary 
prudence."  Persons  incapable  of  doing  so,  and  who  can  not  compete 
in  the  world  with  persons  on  reasonably  equal  terms,  fall  into  the 
feeble-minded  group.  We  may  ordinarily  expect  to  classify  persons 
as  feeble-minded  whether  or  not  the  test  results  show  them  to  fall 
withing  the  usual  I.  Q.  limits  of  that  group.  Few  feeble-minded 
persons,  however,  test  above  .75.  Most  of  them  test  below  .70.  The 
average-normal  group,  which  comprises  the  great  bulk  of  the  popula- 
tion, includes  persons  who  are  socially  normal,  so  far  as  the  expression 
of  intelligence  is  concerned.  Most  individuals  of  average-normal 
intelligence  and  social  ability  fall  within  the  I.  Q.  limits  of  .92  and 
1.10.  The  borderline  and  dull-normal  groups  include  those  who  are 
between  social  normality  and  social  feebleness.  The  superior  group 
includes  persons  of  unusually  high  intelligence,  most  of  whom  have 
I.  Q.'s  of  1.10  or  above. 

TABLE  II.     Distribution  of  Social-Intelligence  Groups  ly  Institutions. 


Feeble- 
minded 

Border- 
zone 

Dull- 
normal 

Average- 

Superior        Total 

A 

3 

4 

12 

39 

8                 66 

B                                             

3 

7 

4 

16 

71           37 

C                                                  

1 

4 

6 

12 

2 

D                                                   .  

2 

2 

10 

7 

1              22 

E    

5 

2 

1 

3 

1              12 

Total                                        

14 

19 

33 

77 

19  1         162 

I 

52 


STATE   BOARD    OF    CHARITIES   AND    CORRECTIONS. 


The  distribution  of  cases  by  these  social-intelligence  groups  for 
different  institutions  is  shown  in  Table  II.  In  Institutions  A,  B 
and  C,  the  average-normal  group  contains  the  largest  number  of 
children.  In  Institution  D  the  dull-normal  group  predominates.  In 
Institution  E  the  feeble-minded  group  is  largest. 

It  will  be  seen  that  of  our  162  cases,  14  are  classified  as  feeble- 
minded. This  refers  in  each  instance  to  feeble-mindedness  in  the 
social  sense.  Using  the  most  highly  approved  methods,  and  applying 
standards  conservatively,  these  14  persons  are  found  to  be  incapable, 
by  reason  of  mental  defect,  of  becoming  independent,  self-supporting 
citizens.  Five  of  these  14  feeble-minded  cases  are  unwed  mothers. 


2.0          30         40          50  60         70          80          90          100 


ORPHAN  CHILD  REN 


UNWCO  MOTHERS 


FIG.  3.  Percentage  distribution  of  social-intelligence  groups,  comparing  orphan 
children  and  unwed  mothers  with  unselected  school  children  examined  with 
the  same  tests. 

Expressed  in  terms  of  percentage,  6  per  cent  of  the  orphan  children 
and  41.6  per  cent  of  the  unwed  mothers  are  feeble-minded.  How 
these  compare  with  what  is  found  by  applying  the  same  tests  in  the 
same  way,  using  similar  supplementary  data  with  ordinary  public 
school  children  is  shown  graphically  in  Fig.  3.  This  figure  offers  a 
number  of  important  suggestions.  In  the  first  place  it  should  be  noted 
that  all  of  the  social-intelligence  groups  are  represented  in  both  the 
orphan  and  unwed  mother  classes.  There  has  been  every  opportunity 
for  intelligence  to  be  discovered  where  it  was  present.  Supplementary 
information,  carefully  analyzed,  was  continually  made  use  of  as  a 
check  for  the  tests,  so  that  we  are  reasonably  sure  that  any  unfair 
tests  could  not  have  been  misinterpreted.  Children  and  young  women 
who  were  said  by  their  teachers  and  matrons  to  be  unusually  bright 
almost  without  exception  tested  above  the  average  for  their  ages. 
Children  who  were  known  to  be  "slow."  "dull,"  "stupid"  and 
irresponsive  in  their  school  work  and  daily  duties  usually  tested 
correspondingly  low.  In  other  words,  there  was  a  remarkably  close 
agreement  of  the  test  measurements  and  the  other  criteria  for  judging 


SURVEYS  IN   MENTAL   DEVIATION.  53 

intelligence.  We  may  therefore  safely  conclude  that  Fig.  3  is  a 
reliable  picture  of  the  conditions  we  have  set  out  to  determine,  so  far 
as  may  be  judged  from  the  institutions  included  in  the  survey. 

Feeble-minded  Orphans.  What  is  perhaps  the  most  striking  feature 
of  Fig.  3  is  the  relative  proportion  of  feeble-minded  in  each  of  the 
three  groups  shown.  The  uppermost  bar  represents  1,000  unselected 
school  children  examined  under  the  supervision  of  Dr.  Lewis  M. 
Terman  and  classified  according  to  the  manner  described  in  his 
Measurement  of  Intelligence  (1916).  The  extensive  investigations 
made  by  Dr.  Terman  and  his  assistants  revealed  about  2  per  cent  of 
the  school  children  to  be  so  low  in  the  scale  of  intelligence  as  to  war- 
rant their  classification  as  definitely  feeble-minded,  both  intellectually 
and  socially.  In  addition  to  this  group,  8  per  cent  of  the  unselected 
children  were  classified  as  borderline,  10  per  cent  dull-normal,  60  per 
cent  average-normal  and  20  per  cent  superior.  That  both  the  orphan 
children  and  the  unwed  mothers  as  groups  are  inferior  to  average 
school  children  is  plainly  evident.  The  proportion  of  feeble-minded- 
ness  in  the  orphan  group  (6  per  cent)  is  three  times  as  great  as 
Dr.  Terman  found  among  the  unselected  children ;  the  borderline  and 
dull-normal  groups  are  correspondingly  greater  among  the  dependents, 
and  the  average-normal  and  superior  groups  are  correspondingly 
smaller. 

It  is  not  known  exactly  to  what  extent  these  orphan  children  are 
representative  of  all  orphan  children  in  California  charitable  institu- 
tions. There  is  reason  to  believe,  however,  that  the  proportion  of 
feeble-minded  among  the  150  children  included  here  can  not  be  less 
than  the  proportion  for  orphans  throughout  the  state.  These  four 
institutions  can  not  be  much  different,  and  certainly  not  inferior,  on 
the  average,  from  others  in  different  sections.  On  the  whole,  perhaps 
it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  findings  in  these  150  cases  may  furnish  a 
safely  conservative  (perhaps  too  conservative)  basis  for  estimating  the 
number  of  feeble-minded  orphans  in  institutions  throughout  the  state. 

It  has  been  stated  that  the  children's  institutions  in  California 
enrolled  5,324  dependent  children  for  the  year  just  passed.  Using  our 
conservative  6  per  cent  as  a  basis  for  calculation,  we  may  estimate  that 
there  are  no  less  than  319  feeble-minded  children  in  the  61  institutions 
reported  upon  for  that  year.  Only  two  of  the  institutions  had  enrolled 
more  than  300  children.  One  of  these  enrolled  562,  the  other,  375. 
The  probable  number  of  feeble-minded  orphans  in  the  state,  then,  is 
greater  than  the  present  total  enrollment  of  any,  save  two  of  the 
children's  institutions  in  the  state.  The  Training  School  at  Vineland, 
New  Jersey,  could  be  more  than  half  filled  with  these  feeble-minded 
orphan  children  alone.  It  should  be  remembered  in  considering  this 


")4  STATE   BOARD   OF    CHARITIES    AND    CORRECTIONS. 

estimate  that  mentally  defective  orphan  children  in  institutions  almost 
without  exception  ;n-e  of  the  moron  grade.  Very  few  imbeciles  and 
no  idiots  are  received  by  the  orphan  homes.  I  low  many  additional 
defective  children  of  these  lower  grades  are  left  as  a  burden  upon 
private  individuals  we  have  no  way  of  estimating.  Certainly  the  total 
number  of  all  grades  for  the  state  would  fall  not  far  below  500.  •  It  is 
sufficient  for  this  discussion,  however,  to  deal  with  the  6  per  cent 
which  have  been  actually  found. 

That  dependent  feeble-minded  children  belong  in  an  institution  of 
a  different  sort  from  the  orphan  home  in  which  so  many  have  been 
placed,  would  hardly  be  disputed  by  anyone  who  is  familiar  with  the 
far-reaching  consequences  of  feeble-mindedness.  The  public  schools, 
through  which  a  few  localities  are  now  attempting  to  meet  the  problem, 
at  best  can  only  provide  special  instruction  by  means  of  ungraded 
rooms,  and  that  for  but  a  few  school  years  of  a  few  months  each. 
Kven  if  they  are  to  be  cared  for  by  the  orphanages,  the  present  custom 
requires  that  they  begin  to  shift  for  themselves  at  the  age  of  14  or 
shortly  after.  .  It  is  from  this  self-shifting  that  the  most  disastrous 
consequences  of  feeble-mindedness  evolve.  No  person  whose  intelli- 
gence is  limited  in  its  development  to  that  of  a  child  of  less  than  12 
years,  as  is  always  the  case  with  the  feeble-minded,  can  long  main- 
tain the  struggle  for  existence  without  becoming  a  public  burden  as 
a  delinquent,  criminal,  prostitute,  pauper  or  vagabond.  Among  the 
inmates  of  jails,  prisons  and  industrial  schools  may  be  found  many 
social  incompetents  who  were  thus  turned  loose  to  prey  upon  .society 
or  to  become  the  prey  of  others. 

The  problem  of  properly  segregating  the  feeble-minded  is  by  no 
means  confined  to  the  defective  orphan  group.  The  Census  of  1910 
gave  555,554  children  of  school  age  in  California.  The  number  in 
1!>1 7  is  much  greater.  Using  the  1910  number,  however,  and 
calculating  upon  the  basis  of  2  per  cent,*  the  probable  number  of 
feeble-minded  children  in  the  state  reaches  the  stupendous  figure  of 
11.000.  Even  if  we  were  to  figure  on  a  basis  of  1  per  cent,  the  number 
of  persons  socially  incompetent  under  the  present  rules  of  society  still 
remain  greater  than  ever  provided  for  by  the  most  drastic  legislation. 

It  will  be  necessary  to  resort  to  more  widespread  control  of  defective 
mating*  or  to  the  building  of  an  enormous  number  of  colonies  if  the 
problem  is  to  be  solved.  To  both  of  these  methods  there  will  doubtless 
be  many  objections  offered.  The  colony  method,  if  permanent  segre- 
gation is  provided,  is  the  better  of  the  two.  The  enormous  cost. 


*Dr.  Lewis  M.  Terman  in  his  Mr(i!tiiri')iii')it  <>f  Inti  Ilif/rncc  says  (p.  6)  :  "Wherever 
intelligence  tests  have  been  made  in  any  considerable  number  in  the  schools,  they  have 
shown  that  not  far  from  2  per  cent  of  the  children  enrolled  have  a  grade  of  intelli- 
.ui-ncf  which,  however  long  they  live,  will  never  develop  beyond  the  level  which  is 
.novmul  to  tin-  average  child  of  11  or  1:2  years  of  age." 


STRYKYS    IX     MKXTAL    DEVIATION. 


55 


however,  as  seen  by  those  who  fail  to  consider  the  cost  of  feeble- 
mindedness without  these  colonies,  would  he  too  <rreat  for  a  single 
venture.  So  far  as  feeble-minded  orphans  are  concerned,  the  problem 
should  be  of  no  great  difficulty.  Suppose  that,  in  the  interest  of  all 
orphan  children  in  the  state,  if  one  or  two  of  the  larger  institutions 
were  set  aside  for  feeble-minded  orphans.  These  children  are  already 
.segregated  and  under  state  supervision.  It  would  only  be  necessary 
to  transfer  a  few  eases  from  each  institution  to  those  which  would 
specialize  in  the  training  and  supervision  of  feeble-minded  dependents. 
If  some  of  the  private  benefactions  in  the  future  were  made  with  this 
aim  in  view  there  is  no  doubt  that  child  welfare  work  would  reap 
enormous  benefits.  The  problem  of  permanent  custodial  care  would, 
of  course,  be  a  consideration  in  any  such  arrangement. 

TAIU.I;   III.      X/niniHtri/  of  linitoitunt  l)<ita  Cnncdniixj  'J'lrt-lrr   I'mrnl  Mntlnix. 


Age 

Mental 
age 

I.  Q. 

Group 

Grade 

Probable 
development 

No.    1 

17-2 

7-6 

.47 

Feeble-minded 

Ung. 

8  years 

\o     •' 

20-0 

9-5 

59 

Feeble-minded 

5 

10  years 

No     3 

16-1 

10-7 

66 

Feeble-minded 

7 

11  years 

No     4 

21-7 

10-8 

67 

Feeble-minded 

8  9 

11  years 

No     5 

14-5 

10-6 

73 

Feeble-minded 

Ung. 

12  years 

No.    6    „     

19-8 

12-1 

.76 

Borderzone 

8 

13  years 

No.    7 

18-6 

12-5 

.78 

Bordorzone 

8 

13  years 

No.    8 

20-3 

14-6 

.91 

Dull-normal 

Low  adult 

No.   9* 

12-0* 

11-8 

.97 

Average-normal 

6 

Av.  adult 

No.   10 

17-6 

15-10 

.99 

Average-normal 

8 

Av.  adult 

No     11 

21-6 

16-0 

100 

Average-normal 

8 

Av.  adult 

No     l'> 

17-4 

17-10 

112 

Superior 

12 

High  adult 

»Oa«s  Xo  !»  was  not  a  mother,  but  was  being  held  for  observation.  Her  older  sist-r  was 
pregnant,  and  their  experiences  had  been  similar. 

Feeble-minded  I'mrid  Mothers.  Turning  again  to  Fig.  3  we  see  the 
enormous  proportion  of  feeble-minded  in  the  home  for  unwed  mothers 
(Institution  E)  represented  by  the  lower  bar.  Percentages,  it  is  true, 
are  unsafe  when  calculated  from  so  small  a  number  as  given  here.  How- 
ever, since  this  represents  the  entire  number  of  girls  passing  through 
the  institution  in  several  months,  in  view  of  the  statement  of  the  mat  run 
that  these  cases  are  in  no  way  different  from  those  continually  received, 
the  proportion  of  feeble-minded  found  is  significant.  It  is  not  likely 
that  tests  of  several  hundred  of  these  girls  would  show  a  much  smaller 
percentage.  A  glance  at  Table  III  will  be  enlightening.  Taking  the 
five  feeble-minded  mothers,  we  find  their  ages  (discarding  months  for 
the  present)  to  be  14.  16,  17.  20  and  21,  respectively.  Their  m<  nlul  n;iis, 
upon  which  their  social  success  is  more  dependent,  are  10, 10,  7,  9  and  10. 
Upon  the  supposition  that  measurable  intelligence  does  not  develop 


56  STATE   BOARD   OF    CHARITIES   AND    CORRECTIONS. 

much  beyond  the  chronological  age  of  16  years,  we  have  in  reality  five 
young  children — none  intelligent  enough  to  have  much  appreciation  of 
her  condition  of  unwed  motherhood  or  the  social  consequences  involved. 
Had  their  f  eeble-mindedness  been  recognized  at  an  early  age,  and  had 
each  been  placed  in  an  institution  or  colony  under  kind  and  intelligent 
supervision,  these  blameless  young  mothers  could  have  been  at  least 
partly  self-supporting,  and  would  have  been  saved  the  unhappiness 
incident  to  their  recent  experiences.  That  these  five  women  with  child- 
minds  have  become  mothers  is  clearly  the  fault  of  the  society  that  per- 
mitted them  to  be  at  large.  Now  that  they  are  under  supervision,  a 
repetition  of  their  experience  should  be  avoided  by  placing  them  in 
permanent  custodial  care.  To  do  otherwise  can  be  nothing  less  than 
hazardous. 

Feeble-minded  Cases.  It  is  deemed  well  worth  while  to  give  a  brief 
account  of  each  of  our  fourteen  feeble-minded  cases.  Nine  of  these  are 
in  the  orphan  group,  and  five  are  unwed  mothers.  Following  are  the 
feeble-minded  orphans : 

R.  M.  Boy.  Age  12-6  (i.  e.,  12  years,  6  months).  Mental  age  8-6. 
I.  Q.  .68.  Probable  limit  of  mental  development,  10  years.  Of  Mexican- 
Indian  descent,  but  shows  no  indication  of  this  heritage  in  appearance. 
Phlegmatic,  slow,  dull  and  stupid.  Has  tubercular  spine.  Has  reached 
fourth  grade  in  school,  but  probably  will  not  succeed  in  going  very  far 
beyond.  A  twin  sister,  who  is  not  at  present  in  an  institution,  is  of 
about  the  same  grade  of  intelligence.  Both  are  clearly  cases  for  perma- 
nent custodial  care,  since  there  is  little  chance  for  them  as  independent 
citizens.  Few  children  of  this  grade  ever  develop  sufficient  intelligence 
to  render  them  capable  of  managing  themselves  satisfactorily  in  the 
ordinary  walks  of  life.  In  an  institution  for  the  feeble-minded,  however, 
they  could  properly  become  nearly  self-supporting,  and  would  be  saved 
the  necessity  of  competing  with  persons  of  average-normal  intelligence. 
In  the  orphans'  home  R.  M.  is  a  burden  because  he  is  unable  to  compre- 
hend the  ordinary  rules  of  conduct.  He  easily  becomes  the  vicitim  of 
his  more  intelligent  playmates  and  his  stupidity  becomes  the  object  of 
much  ridicule.  The  fact  that  he  appears  bright  to  persons  not  trained 
in  observing  the  feeble-minded  adds  nothing  to  his  advantage.  There 
is  every  reason  to  believe  that  he  would  be  happier  and  better  trained 
in  an  institution  specializing  upon  this  grade  of  intelligence. 

B.  R.  Boy.  Age  14-2.  Mental  age  10-2.  I.  Q.  .72.  The  only  child 
of  a  feeble-minded,  excitable  mother.  Is  in  the  ungraded  room  of  the 
public  school,  where  he  is  reported  to  be  dull  and  backward.  His 
teachers  state  that  he  is  indolent  in  all  his  work,  but  that  he  is  "better 
in  manual  training  than  anything  else."  Even  in  manual  work  he  is 


SURVEYS   IN   MENTAL   DEVIATION.  57 

said  to  be  "lacking  in  application."  This  is  exactly  what  might  be 
expected  of  a  high-grade  feeble-minded  boy  of  his  age.  The  failure  to 
apply  himself  may  easily  be  explained  by  his  relatively  low  level  of 
intelligence.  We  would  hardly  look  for  much  interest  in  regular  school 
class  work  from  a  feeble-minded  boy  nearing  maturing.  We  may  look, 
however,  for  serious  social  consequences  if  he  is  placed  upon  his  own 
responsibility  because  of  his  chronological  age.  He  can  not  develop 
intelligence  much  higher  than  his  present  level,  but  there  are  many 
years  ahead  of  him,  judging  from  his  good  physical  condition.  The 
advisability  of  forcing  B.  E.  to  meet  the  problems  of  these  coming  years 
without  supervision  may  well  be  questioned,  in  the  light  of  many  case 
histories  of  delinquents  and  criminals  of  about  the  same  intellectual 
grade.  We  can  not,  of  course,  positively  assert  that  B.  R.  will  continue 
to  be  a  public  charge.  But  we  do  know  that  he  is  far  from  normal ; 
that  he  will  never  become  normal ;  that  he  has  not  been  trained  to  sup- 
port himself  in  any  vocation ;  that  he  is  of  a  level  of  intelligence  which 
leaves  him  easily  susceptible  to  evil  influence ;  and  that  it  would  be  to 
the  interest  of  all  concerned  if  he  were  in  a  training  school  for  the 
high-grade  feeble-minded. 

S.  B.  Girl.  Age  11-7.  Mental  age  8-6.  I.  Q.  .73.  Foolish,  hysteri- 
cal and  nervous.  Very  backward  in  school.  Is  now  in  fourth  grade,  but 
unlikely  to  advance  much  beyond.  One  of  a  number  of  children  in  one 
family  whose  paternal  parentage  is  uncertain.  The  mother  is  highly 
excitable,  immoral  and  probably  feeble-minded.  It  is  not  likely  that  S.  B. 
will  ever  develop  an  intelligence  level  beyond  that  common  to  average 
children  11  or  12  years  of  age.  In  the  light  of  her  personal  and  family 
history  she  may  be  safely  recommended  to  an  institution  more  highly 
specialized  in  training  children  whose  intellectual  development  is  limited 
to  the  lower  levels.  She  can  not  be  a  safe  companion  of  normal  children 
and  needs  closer  supervision  than  most  orphan  homes  provide. 

B.  W.  Boy.  Age,  unknown,  probably  above  8  years.  Mental  age  4-0. 
I.  Q.  about  .45.  Has  been  an  inmate  of  charitable  institutions  since  very 
early  infancy.  Nothing  known  of  parents.  Was  adopted  into  the  home 
of  a  private  family  upon  the  supposition  that  he  was  normal.  In  the 
absence  of  psychological  and  sociological  data  these  charitable  people 
had  no  reason  to  believe  otherwise.  As  a  result  of  this  child's  feeble 
native  endowment  he  has  developed  into  an  almost  hopeless  case  from 
the  standpoint  of  private  home  management.  Believing  that  something 
could  be  done  to  develop  his  weakened  powers,  he  has  been  taken  to 
many  specialists,  but  none  can  extend  these  limitations  of  nature.  The 
fact  that  certain  family  sentiment  has  been  built  up  around  the  child 
makes  the  burden  still  greater,  and  can  not  but  emphasize  the  need  for 
a  special  institution  to  which  such  children  may  be  transfererd  so  that 


58  STATE   BOAKD    OF    CHARITIES    AND    CORRECTIONS. 

they  will  not  be  adopted  upon  incorrect  assumptions.  The  case  of  B.  \V. 
has  probably  been  repeated  elsewhere  many  times. 

G.  L.  Girl.  Age  14-2.  Mental  age  8-0.  1.  (^.  ..",ti.  Is  several  years 
retarded  in  school,  having  readied  only  the  fourth  grade.  Was  admitted 
to  orphan  home  with  her  sister  (see  following  case)  from  the  juvenile 
court  as  needy  and  dependent.  Has  strongly  developed  immoral 
tendencies  and  is  of  too  low  intelligence  to  profit  greatly  from  the  moral 
instruction  necessary  to  correct  her.  Is  "needy"  in  that  she  needs 
constant  supervision  and  special  guidance  if  she  is  to  pass  through  her 
adolescent  period  with  any  degree  of  safety.  The  family  conditions, 
as  indicated  by  the  genealogy  (Fig.  4  and  subsequent  description)  are 
not  unusual  for  the  grade  of  intelligence  common  to  several  members. 
The  best  development  of  G.  L.  and  the  normal  children  with  whom  she 
is  now  associated  require  that  she  be  placed  in  a  special  institution. 

D.  L.  Sister  of  G.  L.  Age  12-7.  Mental  age  9-1.  I.  Q.  .72.  A 
high-grade  moron  like  her  sister,  and  much  like  her  in  conduct  and 
school  work,  but  of  somewhat  higher  mental  development.  Neither  can 
possibly  be  considered  normal  in  comparison  with  children  of  their  ages. 
Both  are  properly  eases  for  a  special  institution  for  their  own  protection 
and  that  of  the  society  in  which  they  are  likely  to  float  if  placed  upon 
their  own  responsibility.  Feeble-mindedness  is  common  among  the 
relatives.  A  glance  at  the  family  chart  suggests  its  probable  reappear- 
ance if  another  generation  or  two  be  added. 

D.  R.  Boy.  Age  12-9.  Mental  age  9-0.  I.  Q.  .70.  High-grade 
moron.  Of  Mexican-Indian  descent.  Although  in  regular  school  attend- 
ance for  several  years  has  reached  only  third  grade,  this  representing 
the  significant  retardation  of  three  years.  Can  not  do  regular  school 
work  satisfactorily,  ['liable  to  pass  any  of  the  intelligence  tests  in  the 
twelve-year  group  (his  own  chronological  year)  which  most  children 
of  that  age  readily  pass.  Vocabulary  is  very  low  and  poor  in  quality. 
This  low  test  result  can  not  be  explained  by  reason  of  any  unfairness 
of  the  tests  to  Mexican  children.  "While  it  is  true  that  the  tests  were 
standardized  chiefly  with  white  children,  we  can  find  no  tests  in  which 
D.  R.  is  at  a  disadvantage  so  far  as  concerns  the  measuring  of  his 
intelligence.  He  speaks  English  fluently  and  has  had  at  least  average 
school  opportunities.  A  few  of  the  test  responses  may  serve  to  illustrate 
his  inferiority  to  most  12-year-old  children.  A  bonfire  is  "a  bomb  that 
you  fire  with";  curse  means  "what  girls  wear";  a  treasury  is  "when 
you  build  something":  jux1i<-<  means  "just  as  you  have  done."  A 
/, -nift  -l>l<ul( .  a  fteiuni  and  a  pi«-f  of  irirt  are  alike  because  "the  penny 
is  made  from  the  wire."  The  fable  of  the  Fox  and  the  Crow  (which 
was  read  to  him  in  simple  language  teaches  us  "not  to  talk  when  you 
Bre  eatiim-. "  Iron  and  silvn-  are  alike  because  "they  are  both  made  out  of 


SI.'KVKYS    IX    MENTAL    l'K\  IATION.  .>!> 

iron."  One  who  is  familiar  with  the  responses  of  average  children  of 
12  years  for  these  tests  will  immediately  see  the  inferiority  of  these,  and 
their  nearer  resemblance  to  those  which  might  be  expected  of  a  9-year- 
old.  The  responses  of  D.  R.  do  not  differ  from  those  of  a  feeble-minded 
white  child  of  the  same  age  and  in  no  way  indicate  any  racial  handicap. 
D.  R.  's  brother,  who  was  also  examined,  tests  average-normal  and  has 
reached  the  same  grade  in  school,  -although  two  years  younger.  We 
must  conclude  either  that  the  one  is  feeble-minded,  or  that  the  other  is 
decidedly  superior  to  average  children  of  his  age.  The  evidence  strongly 
favors  the  conclusion  that  D.  R.  is  a  high-grade  moron  and  will  probably 
not  develop  an  intelligence  level-high  enough  to  insure  social  stability, 
unless  placed  under  very  close  supervision.  He  can  be  most  efficiently 
provided  for  in  a  special  institution. 

GK  M.  Girl.  Age  14-11.  Mental  age  8-0.  I.  Q.  .54.  Middle- 
grade  moron.  Highly  excitable,  nervous.  Makes  foolish  motions  and 
grimaces.  Mutters  to  herself  while  doing  such  tests  as  form-board, 
weight  ball  and  field,  etc.  Vocabulary  index  is  but  19,  that  for  most 
girls  of  her  age  being  not  less  than  50.  This  poverty  of  expressive 
terms  is  further  indicated  by  her  failure  in  the  word  test  in  which  she 
could  think  of  but  21  words  in  three  minutes.  Nearly  all  normal 
children  10  years  of  age  readily  name  at  least  60  words  in  three  minutes, 
and  under  the  same  conditions.  G.  M.  also  fails  on  many  tests  which 
children  of  9  years  pass  without  difficulty.  Her  definition  of  pity  is 
"to  do  something  wrong";  clwrity  means  "happy";  eyelash:  "to  lash 
something ' ' ;  muzzle :  "  a  club ' ' ;  regard :  "  to  guard  something. ' '  These 
responses  are  clearly  indicative  of  very  low  intelligence  when  given  by  a 
young  woman  who  is  practically  15  years  of  age.  In  the  public  schools 
G.  M.  has  reached  only  the  fifth  grade,  although  her  opportunities  have 
been  normal  and  her  school  work  not  seriously  interrupted.  She  has  a 
sister  and  a  brother,  both  of  whom  are  borderline  cases  (I.  Q.  .80)  and 
dependent  upon  charity.  The  children  are  half-orphans.  All  would  be 
better  off  in  a  special  institution,  but  it  is  especially  important  that 
G.  M.  be  placed  under  close  supervision. 

R,  T.  Girl.  Age  14-0.  Mental  age  8-2.  I.  Q.  .58.  Middle-grade 
moron.  Test  characterized  by  unusual  "scattering"  of  responses,  which 
often  indicates  mental  instability.  No  psychiatric  examination  had  been 
made,  but  if  a  psychopathic  condition  exists  it  must  be  in  addition  to 
definite  feeble-mindedness.  It  is  clearly  evident  that  her  general 
capacity  to  adapt  herself  to  new  conditions  more  clearly  resembles  that 
of  a  child  of  8  years  than  of  normal  girls  of  14.  She  had  just  come 
from  another  state  where,  in  a  small  two-room  school  she  was  reported 
to  have  reached  the  seventh  grade.  A  twin  brother  is  still  in  grade  IV. 
In  the  Los  Angeles  schools  she  was  unable  to  do  even  sixth  irnulf  work 


60  STATE   BOARD   OP    CHARITIES   AND    CORRECTIONS. 

and  it  is  probable  that  her  level  of  ability  will  be  found  so  low  that  it 
will  be  necessary  to  place  her  in  the  special  class.  Nearing  the  age  limit 
for  compulsory  school  attendance,  however,  and  already  beyond  the 
age  at  which  children  may  be  kept  at  the  institution  under  the  regular 
rules,  it  is  not  likely  that  school  work  will  offer  much  attraction  to  her. 
If  not  placed  soon  under  close  supervision  there  are  many  dangers 
awaiting,  and  it  is  a  practical  certainty  that  she  will  soon  become  a 
public  charge.  How  much  unhappiness  and  misfortune  would  be  saved 
by  placing  her  now  in  a  well-equipped  training  school  or  special  home 
for  feeble-minded  dependents,  can  only  be  determined  by  neglecting  to 
do  so. 

The  foregoing  cases  of  feeble-minded  orphan  children  must  be 
reasonably  representative  of  feeble-minded  orphans  throughout  the 
state.  Few  cases  are  of  such  low  intelligence  that  their  deficiency  can 
be  readily  recognized  without  the  use  of  standardized  intelligence 
tests.  The  retardation  in  each  instance  is  given  in  terms  of  deviation 
from  the  performance  of  average  children  of  the  same  age  as  the 
subject.  There  are  enough  of  these  children,  who  are  sufficiently 
retarded  to  warrant  their  removal  from  the  institutions  in  which  they 
are  now  living,  to  an  institution  especially  equipped  for  caring  for  the 
high-grade  feeble-minded. 

With  the  unwed  mothers  the  conditions  are  somewhat  the  same.  No 
feeble-minded  person,  child  or  adult,  whether  orphaned  or  not,  should 
be  forced  to  compete  on  equal  terms  with  normal  persons.  The 
following  cases  of  feeble-minded  unwed  mothers  furnish  concrete 
evidence  of  the  need  of  better  provision  for  persons  who  are  unable  to 
meet  the  ordinary  conditions  of  life  without  supervision. 

L.  A.  Age  17-2.  Mental  age  7-6.  I.  Q.  .47.  Low-grade  moron. 
Is  of  Mexican-Indian  descent,  but  speaks  Spanish  no  better  than 
English.  Has  very  poor  use  of  words,  but  her  inability  to  speak 
correctly  in  no  way  interfered  with  the  test.  This  was  indicated  by 
the  reading  test,  which  she  passed  satisfactorily.  When  last  attending 
school  was  in  the  ungraded  room,  being  unable  to  do  regular  school 
work.  She  can  not  repeat  five  digits,  describe  pictures,  draw  distinc- 
tions between  common  objects,  arrange  the  five  blocks  in  order  of 
weight,  copy  the  designs,  nor  comprehend  the  absurdities.  These  are 
among  the  simple  tests  which  any  normal  child  under  10  can  pass 
without  difficulty  and  failures  on  them  at  this  young  woman's  age 
are  in  themselves  indicative  of  feeble-mindedness.  The  history  of 
L.  A.'s  case  verifies  our  diagnosis  and  leaves  little  room  for  any  other 
conclusion  as  to  her  feeble  ability  to  manage  herself  with  ordinary 
prudence,  even  among  her  own  people,  where  social  reactions  are 
probably  few.  The  mother  is  dead,  the  father  is  a  laborer.  There  are 


SURVEYS   IX    MENTAL   DEVIATION.  61 

three  other  children  in  the  family.  The  man  responsible  for  her 
pregnancy  is  a  motion  picture  employee  who  has  promised  to  marry 
her  when  he  is  financially  able.  The  girl  is  a  ward  of  the  juvenile 
court  and  ^has  been  turned  over  to  a  charitable  institution  as 
"dependent"  and  in  danger  of  growing  up  to  lead  an  idle  and 
dissolute  or  immoral  life.  This  danger  faces  any  girl  of  17  whose 
mind  is  that  of  a  child  of  less  than  8  years,  and  whose  management  is 
trusted  to  herself.  In  a  training  school  for  the  feeble-minded,  or  in 
a  special  institution  set  aside  for  mentally  defective  young  mothers, 
there  is  little  doubt  that  she  could  become  nearly  self-supporting  and 
unlikely  to  repeat  the  experience  which  has  made  her  a  court  ward. 

D.  M.  Age  20.  Mental  age  9-5.  I.  Q.  .59.  Middle-grade  moron. 
Very  ignorant  and  illiterate,  although  she  has  had  every  opportunity 
to  go  to  school.  Reported  to  have  reached  the  fifth  grade,  but  it  is 
doubtful  if  she  could  do  the  work  of  that  grade  very  well.  Says  she  is 
married  to  a  sailor  and  that  he  is  the  father  of  her  child.  The  alleged 
husband  is  said  to  be  in  another  part  of  the  world.  Whether  married 
or  not,  this  woman  has  become  a  burden  because  of  her  too  feeble 
capacity  for  becoming  self-supporting  by  ordinary  competition.  Is 
physically  strong  and  could  contribute  much  toward  her  own  welfare 
and  that  of  her  child  if  she  were  placed  in  a  training  school  or  special 
home. 

B.  D.  Age  16-1.  Mental  age  10-7.  I.  Q.  .66.  High-grade  moron. 
Said  to  have  reached  the  seventh  grade  in  school,  but  is  unable  to  pass 
tests  with  which  many  fourth-grade  children  have  no  difficulty.  Many 
of  her  responses  show  such  inferior  comprehension  that  one  wonders 
how  she  could  have  been  promoted  in  school  so  far  beyond  her  actual 
ability.  The  lack  of  clinical  psychologists  in  the  schools  and  the  still 
too  common  system  of  automatic  promotions  are  among  the  chief 
reasons  for  so  many  misfits.  B.  D.  's  intellectual  inferiority  to  average 
girls  of  her  age  is  indicated  by  the  following  quotations  from  the  test 
record.  The  absurdity  of  the  bicycle  rider:  "He  was  foolish  to  fall 
off";  The  fable  of  Hercules  and  the  wagoner  teaches  us  "How  to  fix 
your  wagon  when  it  broke  down."  The  word  quake  means  "to  make 
a  noise";  bewail  means  "to  beware";  conscientious  means  "don't  cost 
anything."  The  following  is  extracted  exactly  as  written  from  a 
letter  written  by  B.  D. : 

You  will  half  to  excuse  this  writing  for  I  am  in  a  hurry  its  near 
time  to  go  back  on  duty  and  I  want  to  finish  before  I  do.  I  will 
close  hoping  to  hear  from  you  real  soon  will  close  hoping  to  hear 
from  you  real  soon  with  Love  and  Kisses  from  your  loving  friend 

P.  S.  When  you  see  are  write  to are  Miss 

__tell  them  I  said  to  write. 


62  i-TATK    HOARD   OF    CHAKITIKS    AXD    CORRECTIONS. 

While  this  girl  would  pass  for  normal  in  almost  any  community, 
there  is  little  probability  that  she  could  manage  her  affairs  with  the 
ordinary  prudence  which  social  normality  demands.  Nothing  should 
stand  in  the  way  of  placing  her  under  better  supervision  than  her 
parents  can  give. 

S.  G.  Age  21.  Mental  age  10-8.  I.  Q.  .67.  High-grade  moron. 
School  progress,  inferior  (grade  reached,  not  known).  Matron's  esti- 
mate of  intelligence,  very  dull.  Passed  no  tests  beyond  year  XII, 
although  the  testing  was  carried  through  to  the  adult  years,  as  with  all 
adult  subjects.  Has  a  way  of  appearing  tired  and  indifferent  and 
consequently  many  untrained  persons  might  overlook  her  mental 
deficiency.  The  experience  leading  up  to  her  pregnancy  might  easily 
be  expected  of  a  high-grade  feeble-minded  girl.  "Picked  up"  on  the 
street  by  a  man  whose  name  she  has  never  known,  she  was  taken 
to  a  moving  picture  theater  and  drugged  on  the  way  home.  She  was 
found  the  next  morning  in  a  public  park.  The  man  has  not  been  seen 
or  heard  from  since  and  his  identity  will  probably  never  be  revealed. 
The  affair  could  never  have  happened  had  this  girl  been  placed  in  a 
training  school,  where  she  would  have  been  useful  and  happy. 

S.  D.  Age  14-5.  Mental  age  10-6.  I.  Q.  .73.  High-grade  moron. 
Has  been  attending  the  ungraded  room  of  the  public  school.  The  case 
of  this  girl  is  similar  to  those  just  described.  Too  nearly  normal  in 
appearance  to  be  suspected  of  being  feeble-minded,  her  inability  to  get. 
along  has  caused  misfortune.  She  is  not  likely  to  develop  intel- 
lectually beyond  the  mental  age  of  12  years  and  if  left  unsupervised 
must  face  the  dangers  which  await  all  feeble-minded  adults  who 
attempt  to  "float"  in  the  general  population. 

Borderline  Cases.  Where  intelligence  tests  are  given  to  a  group 
containing  both  normal  and  feeble-minded  persons,  there  is  usually  a 
number  of  cases  which  fall  between  these  two  groups.  It  can  not  be 
too  strongly  emphasized  that  the  feeble-minded  do  not  constitute  a 
separate  and  distinct  class.  No  sharp  line  of  demarcation  can  be 
drawn  whicli  would  separate  the  feeble-minded  from  the  more  intelli- 
gent. This  is  due  to  the  continuous  variation  of  intelligence  from  the 
lower  to  the  higher  levels.  For  this  reason  it  is  important  to  know 
j(/.s7  lio ic  intelligent  a  subject  is;  not  merely  whether  or  not  he  is 
feeble-minded.  Thus,  the  primary  aim  of  intelligence  testing  is  not 
to  discover  who  is  feeble-minded,  but  to  measure  the  intelligence  of 
each  member  of  the  group  which  is  being  studied. 

Estimating  the  proportion  of  feeble-minded  persons  in  a  tested 
group  always  presents  a  difficult  problem.  Wherever  the  upper  line 
of  feeble-mindedness  is  drawn  there  are  always  a  few  who  test  barely 
at  or  beyond  this  limit.  Should  these  be  considered  feeble-minded. 


SURVEYS    IX    MKNTAL    DK\  IATION.  63 

or  not  feeble-minded?  If,  for  example,  we  assume  that  persons  bavin- 
an  I.  Q.  of  less  than  .75  are  feeble-minded,  what  shall  we  my  of  those 
testing  at  .75.  .76  and  .77?  There  is  certainly  little  difference  intel- 
lectually between  two  children  of  the  same  age  testing  .74  and  .75, 
respectively.  The  same  difficulty  occurs  whether  we  draw  our  dividin- 
line  at  .80,  .70,  .60  or  any  other  single  I.  Q. 

We  can,  however,  place  the  I.  Q.  limit  tentatively  at  a  point  so  low 
as  to  be  reasonably  sure  that  all  persons  testing  below  that  point  are 
feeble-minded  within  the  usual  meaning  of  the  term.  We  can  also 
make  use  of  supplementary  information  to  determine  how  closely  the 
test  results  agree  with  what  is  known  of  the  subject's  social  reactions. 
Then,  by  using  the  psychological  and  social  data  together,  we  may 
make  a  reasonably  safe  diagnosis. 

Persons  who  can  not  be  classified  as  feeble-minded  by  .the  use  of 
these  combined  criteria  and  yet  who  are  so  low  in  both  the  intellectual 
and  social  scale  as  to  make  them  dangerously  near  the  limits  we  have 
set,  may  be  considered  borderline  cases.  It  is  evident  that  many  of 
these  borderline  cases  are  of  too  low  intelligence  for  us  to  expect  them 
to  manage  themselves  and  their  affairs  much  better  than  those  we  have 
called  feeble-minded.  Some  of  them  will  never  be  entirely  self- 
supporting  unless  placed  in  an  institution ;  some  of  them  may  eke  out 
a  living  without  becoming  especially  undesirable  at  large;  and  a  few, 
perhaps,  may  find  a  place  in  the  social  order  through  which  they  may 
pass  for  normal.  The  success  of  the  borderline  case  is  so  dependent 
upon  emotional  and  volitional  factors  that  children  of  this  grade  of 
intelligence  should  be  carefully  studied  and  given  especial  attention 
with  regard  to  their  early  interests  and  ability.  Some  examples  of 
borderline  intelligence  follow: 

H.  P.  Boy.  Age  14-3.  Mental  age  10-9.  I.  Q.  .79.  Has 
reached  the  sixth  grade  in  school,  two  years  below  the  grade  reached 
by  most  children  of  his  age.  Teachers  report  him  to  be  slow,  dull 
and  stupid.  His  sister,  who  is  in  the  same  institution,  is  average- 
normal — I.  Q.  .93.  He  will  probably  develop  the  level  of  intelligence 
common  to  average  children  13  years  of  age,  but  not  much  beyond. 
He  has  already  shown  certain  tendencies  toward  delinquency  which 
make  it  imperative  that  he  be  placed  in  a  parental  school  or  at  least 
under  closer  supervision  than  the  orphanage  can  give. 

C.  T.  Girl.  Age  12-10.  Mental  age  10-1.  I.  Q.  .78.  Has  reached 
the  fifth  grade  in  school,  and  hence  is  not  seriously  retarded.  I'lilik.- 
the  boy  just  described,  she  has  developed  no  tendencies  toward 
delinquency,  is  agreeable  and  trustworthy  in  every  way  and  takes 
much  interest  in  housework.  She  should  be  able  when  -rown  i.» 
manage  herself  with  reasonable  prudence  and  if  employed  by  kind  and 


64  STATE   BOARD   OP    CHARITIES   AND    CORRECTIONS. 

sympathetic  persons  could  compete  successfully  with  average  working 
girls.  It  should  be  remembered  that  she  is  of  low  intelligence  and 
that  her  temperamental  qualities  are  an  important  factor  in  her 
conduct  and  success. 

B.  H.  An  expectant  mother.  Age  19-8.  Mental  age  12-1. 
I.  Q.  .75.  Reported  to  have  reached  the  eighth  grade  in  school,  but 
the  report  has  not  been  verified.  Pier  father  is  a  successful  ranchman 
and  both  parents  are  interested  in  their  daughter,  but  have  failed  to 
recognize  her  weaknesses.  The  father  of  her  expected  is  an  indolent 
clerk  who  married  and  then  deserted  her.  She  is  slow  and  obviously 
dull.  It  is  not  difficult  to  see  how  she  could  be  easily  led  astray.  It 
is  planned  that  this  girl  shall  be  taken  by  her  parents  and  kept  under 
their  supervision.  Upon  the  quality  of  this  guidance  her  success 
largely  depends.  We  can  not  escape  the  conviction  that  it  would  be 
better  for  all  concerned  if  she  were  placed  in  a  special  training  school 
where  her  low  intelligence  could  be  utilized  to  better  advantage.  She 
can  hardly  be  considered  feeble-minded  and  yet  it  is  reasonably  certain 
that  her  intelligence  will  never  be  superior  to  that  of  most  ordinary 
children  13  years  of  age.  Here  is  a  case  which  emphasizes  the  need 
for  further  study  of  borderline  intelligence,  and  how  persons  of  this 
age  can  be  most  efficiently  provided  for. 

Dull-normal  Cases.  It  was  formerly  thought  satisfactory  to  apply 
the  term  borderline  to  all  persons  who  could  not  be  classified  as  either 
feeble-minded  or  normal.  It  was  supposed  to  represent  the  "doubtful" 
cases,  so  classified  in  the  belief  that  further  study  would  show  them  to 
belong  to  either  the  defective  or  the  non-defective  group.  More 
recently  it  has  become  common  to  divide  these  indeterminate  cases  into 
two  groups,  retaining  the  term  borderline  to  designate  those  who  are 
very  near  the  upper  limits  of  feeble-mindedness  and  the  term  dull- 
normal  to  designate  those  who  more  nearly  approach  average-normal 
intelligence.  Such  terms  as  "backward,"  "dull"  and  "retarded"  are 
sometimes  used  to  describe  this  near-normal  group. 

Persons  of  dull-normal  intelligence  are  not  feeble-minded,  nor  do  they 
often  fall  near  enough  that  group  to  be  considered  borderline  cases. 
Yet  they  are  seriously  enough  retarded  to  make  it  necessary  that  they 
be  differentiated  from  those  who  are  fully  equal  to  average  persons  of 
the  same  age.  To  what  extent  this  mental  retardation  is  due  to  external 
factors,  such  as  physical  defects,  malnutrition,  poor  training,  etc.,  and 
how  much  is  due  to  actual  inferiority  in  natural  mental  equipment  are 
problems  which  clinical  psychologists  are  attempting  to  solve.  Recent 
researches  with  intelligence  tests  lead  to  the  belief  that  external  factors 
are  not  of  such  serious  consequence  in  intellectual  retardation  as  they 
were  formerly  supposed  to  be.  We  have  found  no  evidence  among  the 


STKYKYS    IX    MKXTAL    DEVIATION.  65 

cases  in  this  study  that  our  dull-normal  group  has  been  so  affected. 
But  whatever  may  be  its  causes,  dull-normal  intelligence  is  too  impor- 
tant to  be  overlooked.  Following  are  some  illustrative  cases : 

S.  H.  Boy.  Age  10-6.  Mental  age  9-6.  I.  Q.  .90.  Jewish.  Has 
reached  third  grade  in  school  and  is  said  to  be  doing  well,  although 
retarded  one  school  year.  Conduct,  good.  From  a  family  of  about 
average  intelligence.  A  brother,  an  inmate  of  the  same  institution,  is 
average-normal  (I.  Q.  .98).  It  is  probable  that  S.  H.  will  be  able  to 
find  a  satisfactory  place  in  the  world,  and,  while  not  likely  to  become  a 
leader  (toward  wrhich  his  brother  has  already  shown  tendencies)  there 
are  many  occupations  in  which  his  inferiority  would  not  be  a  serious 
handicap.  He  will  probably  develop  to  what  has  been  called  the  "low 
adult"  level.  He  could  profit  greatly  from  vocational  training. 

H.  E.  An. unwed  mother.  Age  20.  Mental  age  14-6.  I.  Q/.91. 
Common  school  education.  Was  working  as  a  domestic  in  the  home  of  a 
man  of  some  prominence.  While  her  employer's  wife  and  children 
were  away,  illicit  relations  began  between  the  two.  Her  child  was 
born  in  the  institution.  The  true  story  of  the  case  was  not  known  for 
some  time,  the  girl  at  first  refusing  to  reveal  the  identity  of  the  child's 
father.  This  was  H.  E.  's  first  and  only  offense,  if  it  may  be  called  an 
offense.  The  child  has  been  placed  for  adoption  and  the  young  mother 
will  return  to  her  parents.  There  is  nothing  in  the  history  of  the  case 
to  indicate  that  her  slightly  inferior  intelligence  was  much  of  a  factor 
in  the  unfortunate  experience.  She  will  pass  for  absolutely  average- 
normal  in  any  community  although  she  is  «low  and  not  quick  to  grasp 
directions.  She  doubtless  has  weaknesses  which  intelligence  tests  do 
not  indicate.  What  other  factors  are  operative  in  cases  of  this  kind  and 
how  they  may  best  be  overcome  are  among  the  important  problems  for 
juvenile  research. 

Average-normal  and  Superior  Cases.  Little  need  be  said  here  con- 
cerning the  intelligence  of  persons  who  closely  resemble  the  great  mass 
of  the  population.  Dr.  Terman  finds  60  per  cent  of  the  children  in  the 
public  schools  to  belong  to  this  average-normal,  the  largest  of  the  intelli- 
gence groups.  It  is  within  this  classification  that  we  should  expect 
any  ordinary  child  or  adult  to  come.  Every  standardized  test  is  so 
adjusted  that  the  average  child  of  a  given  age  (or  the  average  adult,  if 
it  be  an  adult  test)  will  perform  it  satisfactorily,  provided  it  is  given 
under  standardized  conditions.  The  application  of  a  graded  scale  of 
tests  (the  Binet-Simon  Scale  contains  90  tests)  makes- the  comparison 
still  more  accurate  by  allowing  for  individual  differences  among  persons 
of  about  the  same  general  level  of  intelligence. 

It  is  significant  that  while  in  any  ordinary  public  school  probably 
60  per  cent  of  the  children  are  of  average-normal  intelligence,  and  con- 


66  STATE   BOARD   OP    CHARITIES   AND    CORRECTIONS. 


ly  have  I.  Q.'s  of  approximately  3.00,  wherever  the  tests  are 
applied  to  a  group  of  persons  niofe  or  less  dependent  upon  public  or 
private  charity  the  proportion  of  average-normals  is  found  to  be  much 
less.  This  suggests  at  once  a  relation  between  intellectual  capacity  and 
the  ability  to  make  an  independent,  honest  living,  and  to  abide  by  the 
commonly  accepted  rules  of  society.  We  would  therefore  expect  to  find 
a  large  proportion  of  persons  of  low  intelligence  among  dependents, 
delinquents  and  other  groups  which  represent  social  inadaptability. 
At  the  same  time,  however,  we  are  faced  with  an  important  problem 
presented  by  the  small  group  of  intellectually  normal  individuals  among 
these  social  variants.  It  is  not  difficult  to  understand  why  a  feeble- 
minded girl,  such  as  those  described  in  this  study,  should  become  the 
victims  of  circumstances,  and  thus  be  found  among  the  unwed  mothers. 
Neither  is  it  surprising  to  those  familiar  with  f  eeble-mindedness  that 
seven  of  the  twelve  cases  reported  should  be  found  in  the  feeble-minded 
and  borderline  groups.  But  that  young  women  whose  intelligence  is 
equal  cr  superior  to  that  of  ordinary  persons  of  the  same  age  should  be 
found  with  them  and  with  apparently  similar  histories,  demands  that 
our  search  for  causes  shall  extend  to  other  fields.  As  may  be  seen  in  the 
following  cases,  age,  weakened  will  power  and  excitability  seem  to  have 
played  important  parts. 

S.  M.  Age  12-0.  Mental  age  11-8.  I.  Q.  .97.  Average-normal. 
Not  a  mother,  but  held  at  the  institution  for  observation  because  of  sex 
experiences  during  the  few  years  previous.  An  older  sister,  who  was 
pregnant,  was  removed  to  a-special  hospital  because  of  a  venereal  disease 
by  reason  of  which  she  could  not  be  admitted  to  the  maternity  home. 
S.  M.  is  a  small,  attractive  girl  and  her  sex  delinquency  was  undoubt- 
edly due,  in  a  large  measure,  to  the  childish  confidence  which  she  placed 
in  older  persons.  We  can  not  expect  even  a  normal  child  of  ten  years  — 
she  was  that  age  when  her  experiences  began  —  to  have  much  clear 
understanding  of  moral  problems.  Given  an  unsupervised  child,  an 
older  immoral  sister  and  three  immoral  men,  the  probabilities  are  not 
difficult  to  forecast.  S.  M.  has  reached  the  sixth  grade  in  school  and  is 
making  normal  progress.  The  intelligence  of  her  older  sister  was  not 
determined. 

M.  1).  Age  17-6.  Mental  age  15-10.  I.  Q.  .99.  A  high  school 
student.  A  calm,  nonexcitable  girl  who  shows  every  indication  of 
normal  intelligence.  While  living  with  her  mother  and  attending 
school  her  conduct  had  been  excellent,  so  far  as  we  are  able  to  determine. 
At  her  mother's  suggestion  she  took  work  as  a  salesgirl  in  a  depart- 
ment store  and  roomed  with  her  cousin,  also  a  salesgirl.  These  two 
girls  began  to  keep  questionable  company  and  being  under  no  practical 
restraint,  held  small  drinking  parties  in  their  room.  The  third  young 


SURVEYS    IX    MENTAL   DEVIATION.  67 

man  with  whom  M.  D.  was  associated  is  the  father  of  her  child.  He 
offered  to  marry  her,  but  she  refused.  She  is  little  concerned  about 
her  future  and  has  no  explanation  to  offer  except  her  weakness  for 
temporary  pleasures.  That  some  persons  of  normal  intelligence  are  so 
feebly  inhibited  with  reference  to  certain  traits  furnishes  one  of  the 
most  interesting  and  important  problems  in  the  study  of  social  conduct. 
Feeble  inhibition  may  be  due  to  heredity  in  such  a  large  measure  that 
the  proper  control  of  matings  would  eliminate  much  of  this  undesirable 
element. 

C.  G.  Age  21.  Tests  to  average  level.  I.  Q.  1.00.  Left  school 
after  completing  the  eighth  grade  and  became  a  clerk  in  a  cigar  store. 
A  worthless  man  thirty  years  of  age  is  the  father  of  her  child.  He  left 
the  city  after  learning  of  her  plight  and  refused  to  marry  her.  She 
expects  to  place  the  child  for  adoption  and  return  to  her  position. 

M.  H.  Age  17-4.  Tests  to  superior  adult  level.  I.  Q.  1.12.  In 
third  year  of  high  school.  Highly  nervous.  Quick  and  brilliant  in 
responses.  School  progress  excellent.  Matron  of  the  home  thinks  she 
is  the  brightest  girl  they  have  had  for  some  time.  Her  father  is  dead 
and  her  mother  is  employed  as  a  waitress.  No  history  of  her  conduct 
is  available. 

Following  are  some  representative  samples  of  orphan  children  of 
average-normal  and  superior  intelligence.  Usually  the  school  progress 
and  quality  of  work  accord  closely  with  the  intelligence  test  findings. 

Boy.  Age  13-9.  Mental  age  13-9.  I.  Q.  1.00.  Grade  8.  Work 
good. 

Girl.     Age     9-3.     Mental  age    9-4.    I.  Q.  1.01.    Grade  3.    Excellent. 

Girl.     Age  11-4.     Mental  age  11-10.     I.  Q.  1.05.     Grade  6.    Bright 

Boy.  Age  12-7.  Mental  age  13-10.  I.  Q.  1.10.  Grade  6.  Work 
good. 

Boy.     Age  13-5.     Mental  age  15-8.     I.  Q.  1.18.    Grade  8.    Excellent. 

In  these  cases  it  is  just  as  important  to  know  the  level  of  intelligence 
as  in  retarded  and  feeble-minded  cases.  Discipline,  school  promotions 
and  vocational  guidance  can  be  more  wisely  adapted  to  individual  needs 
if  we  know  this  general  level  upon  which  the  child's  future  success 
largely  depends. 

Sex  differences.  Much  has  been  said  about  the  relative  intelligence 
of  men  and  women,  and  many  hypotheses  and  theories  have  been 
advanced  concerning  the  alleged  superiority  of  one  over  the  other. 


68  STATE   BOARD   OF    CHARITIES   AND    CORRECTIONS. 

TABLE   IV.     Sea-  Differcm-i-*   in    I nt<  IIi</<,i<-<- — ()ri>li<ni 


Boys 

Girls 

Both 

Lowest  I.  Q.                         -    -              —    

.45 

.54 

.45 

Highest   I.   Q 

1.22 

1.16  . 

1.22 

Medium  I.  Q. 

.97 

.93 

.94 

Total  number  

79 

71 

150 

The  use  of  intelligence  tests  will  assist  materially  in  learning  what  sex 
differences  exist,  at  least  so  far  as  can  be  determined  in  the  measure- 
ment of  boys  and  girls.  If  either  sex  were  superior  to  the  other,  the 
difference  might  have  an  important  bearing  upon  the  problems  touched 
in  this  survey.  The  group  differences  between  our  79  boys  and  71 
girls  are  shown  in  Table  IV.  Both  the  highest  and  the  lowrest  I.  Q.'s 
are  those  of  boys.  The  average  I.  Q.  for  boys  is  .97,  that  for  girls  is  .93. 
Both  averages,  however,  fall  within  the  same  (average-normal)  group, 
and  are  within  a  few  points  of  the  combined  average,  .94.  The  small 
number  of  cases  makes  this  comparison  of  little  value  for  the  drawing 
of  general  conclusions,  but  it  is  significant  that  the  findings  are  similar 
to  those  of  Dr.  Terman,  who  found  (ibid.  p.  71)  that  "the  intelligence 
of  girls,  at  least  up  to  14  years,  does  not  differ  materially  from  that  of 
boys,  either  as  regards  the  average  level  or  the  range  of  distribution." 

III.  The  Influence  of  Heredity. 

Heredity  in  Feeble-minded  Cases.  It  is  now  a  well-established  fact 
that  feeble-mindedness  is  due  to  heredity  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases. 
The  researches  of  Dr.  H.  H.  Goddard,  Dr.  Charles  B.  Davenport  and 
others  have  furnished  abundant  evidence  that  heredity  is  the  most 
important  single  cause  of  mental  defect.  The  department  of  research 
at  Whittier  State  School  has  made  extended  studies  of  family  history, 
resulting  in  similar  findings  with  reference  to  feeble-minded  delinquent 
boys.  It  is  not  surprising,  then,  that  among  the  relatives  of  feeble- 
minded orphans  we  should  find  mentally  defective  persons.  The  fam- 
ilies of  the  feeble-minded  unwed  mothers  have  not  been  studied  in  detail, 
but  in  the  light  of  what  is  now  known  of  the  sources  of  feeble-minded- 
ness,  it  is  only  reasonable  to  assume  that  most  of  these  unfortunates 
have  descended  from  defective  stock. 

The  study  of  the  family  history  of  orphans  is  obviously  a  difficult  task. 
While  but  a  very  small  proportion  of  the  cases  found  in  this  survey  are 
full  orphans  (i.  e.,  both  parents  dead),  the  conditions  surrounding  the 
placing  of  children  in  institutions  so  often  involve  the  death  of  one  or 
more  relatives,  separation,  divorce,  desertion,  absence  of  near  relatives 
from  the  state,  etc.,  that  detailed  information  can  be  obtained  only  with 


SIRVEYS   IX    MENTAL    DEVIATION. 


difficulty.  It  is  probable  that  the  development  of  children 's  institutions 
will  include  more  satisfactory  means  of  obtaining  and  recording  the 
important  facts  concerning  personal  and  family  history. 


Fig.  4  shows  a  fairly  representative  family  chart  for  the  feeble-minded 
group,  although  but  two  generations  are  shown.*  The  mother  (now 
dead)  was  a  feeble-minded  immoral  woman.  Her  four  children  were 
feeble-minded  and  probably  no  two  have  the  same  father.  Her  second 
husband  is  probably  feeble-minded.  The  second  child,  a  tubercular 
feeble-minded  boy,  is  in  a  public  hospital.  All  of  the  three  daughters 
are  immoral.  The  oldest  is  a  dancer  and  entertainer,  and  an  undesirable 
character.  The  two  youngest  daughters  are  in  an  institution.  Both 
fire  clearly  feeble-minded,  their  I.  Q.'s  being  .56  and  .72,  respectively. 
If  these  children  are  released  from  supervision  during  their  adolescence 
it  is  not  difficult  to  imagine  the  appearance  of  the  chart  when  one  or 
two  succeeding  generations  have  been  added. 

Heredity  in  Oilier  Cases.  The  influence  of  heredity  on  social  stability 
is  by  no  means  limited  to  the  disgenic  aspects  of  feeble-mindedness. 
Many  other  factors  are  also  hereditary  or  dependent  for  their  expres- 
sion upon  inherited  conditions.  Even  a  child  of  normal  or  superior 
intelligence  can  not  be  expected  to  develop  much  social  stability  if  either 
of  the  parents  is  feeble-minded,  insane  or  epileptic.  We  have  already 
noted  cases  of  intellectually  normal  children  whose  conduct  can  be 
explained  by  the  fact  that  they  have  not  inherited  the  inhibitory 
mechanism  necessary  to  the  suppression  of  natural  instincts.  The  facts 


*In  constructing  the  chart  the  commonly  accepted  symbols  and  abbreviations  have 
been  used.  Squares  represent  males ;  circles,  females ;  horizontal  continuous  lines 
between  squares  and  circles  indicate  marriage;  horizontal  dotted  lines  indicate  illicit 
relations ;  F  indicate  feeble-minded ;  N,  normal ;  E,  epileptic ;  ?,  probably  feeble- 
minded ;  Tb,  tubercular ;  C,  criminal ;  A,  alcoholic ;  the  small  arrows  indicate  poten- 
tial delinquent ;  Sx,  immoral ;  Ex,  excitable ;  pointing  fingers  indicate  institution 
cases i 


70 


STATE   BOARD   OF    CHARITIES   AND    CORRECTIONS. 


of  heredity  are  rapidly  become  an  important  part  of  the  study  of 
delinquency,  immorality,  dependency  and  other  social  problems  to 
which  the  proper  care  and  training  of  orphans  are  related.  The  accom- 
panying charts  are  shown  as  reasonably  representative  samples  of  what 
may  be  found  in  the  study  of  any  group  of  persons  who  are  dependent 
upon  public  or  private  charity. 


Fig.  5  shows  the  family  conditions  surrounding  three  children,  two 
of  whom  are  orphans  of  average-normal  intelligence.  The  mother  is  a 
highly  excitable  little  woman  with  poor  judgment  in  the  matters  related 
to  the  parental  supervision  of  children.  Her  first  (noAv  divorced) 
husband,  the  father  of  the  children,  was  a  day  laborer.  He  is  now 
serving  a  term  in  the  penitentiary  for  theft.  All  three  of  the  children 
are  sexually  immoral  and  are  in  serious  danger  of  becoming  delinquent. 
Two  of  them  became  so  wild  and  unruly  that  it  was  necessary  for  them 
to  be  placed  in  an  institution.  Both  had  been  immorally  associated  with 
a  young  man.  Their  younger  sister,  now  living  with  her  mother,  already 
shows  similar  tendencies.  These  girls  may  be  reasonably  classified  as 
potential  delinquents. 


SURVEYS    IX    .MKXTAL    DEVIATION*. 


71 


Fig.  6  shows  a  socially  degenerate  family,  the  youngest  of  whom  is 
an  intellectually  normal,  but  unfortunate  girl  of  about  8  years.  The 
father,  who  left  the  state  after  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  shoot  his 
wife,  is  an  epileptic,  alcoholic,  brutal  gambler.  He  is  of  low  intelligence, 
although  perhaps  not  feeble-minded.  The  mother  is  immoral  and  like- 
wise degenerate  but  of  normal  intelligence.  She  bears  the  marks  and  scars 
of  many  beatings  from  her  husband.  The  oldest  child  is  a  feeble-minded 
boy  now  21  years  of  age,  and  who  is  working  in  the  woods  in  the  north- 
ern part  of  the  state.  The  second  child  is  a  feeble-minded  boy  of  19. 
He  is  greatly  undersized  and  suffers  from  a  disease  of  the  hip.  The 
third  child,  a  boy,  was  serving  a  jail  sentence  at  the  time  of  the  study. 
The  fourth  child  is  a  delinquent  boy  now  in  a  detention  home  under  the 
supervision  of  the  juvenile  court.  The  youngest  child,  who,  as  already 
stated,  is  of  average-normal  intelligence,  shows  few  of  the  characteristics 
of  other  members  of  the  family,  and  even  though  the  inheritance  be  bad, 
careful  training  and  guidance  may  do  much  for  her.  A  point  worth 
mentioning  in  families  of  this  kind  is  the  uncertainty  of  parentage. 
Since  the  mother  is  known  to  be  an  immoral  woman,  we  do  not  know 
that  this  girl  and  her  brothers  have  the  same  father.  If  this  should  be 
the  case  her  better  tendencies  may  in  part  be  thus  accounted  for.  In 
any  event,  it  is  fortunate  that  this  little  girl  is  out  of  the  custody  of  her 
parents.  Needless  to  say,  this  family  has  cost  the  public,  directly  and 
indirectly,  more  than  they  have  given  in  return.  Such  families  are  too 
great  a  burden  for  the  state  to  permit  their  further  propagation. 


72 


STATE   BOARD   OF    CHARITIES   AND    CORRECTIONS. 


Fig.  7.  Represents  a  family  of  three  generations  of  -normal  persons, 
none  of  whom  have  developed  unsocial  tendencies  so  far  as  can  be 
learned.  Through  an  unfortunate  series  of  physical  defects,  however, 
the  entire  present  generation  has  been  made  dependent  upon  charity. 
The  mother's  father,  of  the  first  generation  shown,  is  now  old,  crippled 
by  rheumatism  and  unable  to  work.  The  father  of  the  children  \\.is 
a  government  employee  earning  a  good  salary,  but  became  a  victim  of 
the  cancer  of  the  stomach  and  died.  His  several  months'  illness 
exhausted  the  family  income  and  savings,  leaving  the  mother  and  four 
children  practically  destitute.  The  mother,  a  nurse,  is  now  dying  of 
tuberculosis.  The  children  are  all  of  average-normal  intelligence,  their 
I.  Q.  's  being  .87,  .93,  .97  and  .95,  respectively.  The  oldest,  a  boy,  may 
perhaps  be  better  considered  dull-normal,  although  he  tests  very 
nearly  the  average  level  for  his  age.  All  are  well  behaved,  good  in 
school,  and  show  every  indication  of  becoming  normal,  self-supporting 
and  independent  citizens.  Their  present  guidance  and  training  are  of 
no  small  importance  in  bringing  about  this  highly  desirable  result. 

Size  of  Dependent  Families.  The  case  just  described  in  which  a 
whole  family  of  children  has  been  dependent  upon  charity  is  repre- 
sentative of  many  others  found  in  this  survey.  The  number  of 
dependent  children  distributed  according  to  the  size  of  the  families 
from  which  they  come  is  shown  in  Table  V.  Of  the  total  144  children 
concerning  whom  the  desired  information  could  be  secured,  81,  or 
about  56  per  cent,  are  from  families  having  two  or  more  children. 
all  of  whom  in  each  family  were  placed  in  institutions.  There  are 


SURVEYS   IN    MENTAL    DEVIATION. 


73 


but  20  families  having  but  one  child.  The  average  number  of  children 
per  family  is  Hirer,  which  is  also  the  average  number  of  children  per 
family  for  the  entire  United  States. 

TABLE    V.     \mnlier   of   Dependents   in   Relation   to    Total   dumber   of   Children    in 

Familii. 


Xumber  dependent  children 

j 

r 

r 

!     • 

| 

! 
1 

r 

f 

Families  of  1  ...         -  

20 

20 

Families    of  2 

3 

42 

45 

Families   of  3    __._ 

3 

9 

13 

95 

Families   of  4 

6 

7 

17 

30 

4 

4 

2 

2 

12 

Families  of  6 

3 

2 

2 

7 

Families  of  6  

1 

4 

5 

Totals      

29 

63 

24 

19 

5 

4 

144 

In  Table  VI  we  have  distributed  the  children  according  to  intelli- 
gence and  the  size  of  the  families  from  which  they  came.  The  median 
number  of  children  (indicated  in  each  case  by  *)  per  family  is  3  for 
the  superior  group,  2  for  the  average-normal  group,  3  for  the  dull- 
normal  group,  3  for  the  borderline  group,  and  3  and  4  (number  of 
cases  too  small  for  the  medians  to  be  of  much  significance)  for  the 
feeble-minded  group.  This  distribution  shows  in  general  what  has 
been  found  in  the  analysis  of  larger  groups — the  lowest  birth  rate 
among  the  more  intelligent  classes.  While  this  study  can  not  throw 
much  light  upon  this  important  problem  in  eugenics,  it  is  well  worth 
noting  wherever  the  tendency  is  indicated. 

TABLE  VI.     Intelligence  in  Orphan  Children  in  Relation  to  the  Number  of  Cliililn-n 
in  the  Family. 


Group 

r 

r 

f 

j 

j 

i 

j 

j 

^ 

[ 

3 

.     3 

*3 

2 

3 

1 

15 

1 

*32 

8 

13 

6 

5 

4 

75 

5 

7 

*7 

10 

2 

1 

32 

3 

2 

*5 

2 

1 

18 

2 

1 

*1 

*3 

1 

8 

Totals 

20 

45 

*24 

30 

12 

7 

5 

143 

Racial  Differences.  Of  the  total  of  150  orphan  children  examined, 
all  but  15  are  white.  One  boy  is  colored  and  14  children  are  of  Mexican- 
Indian  descent.  The  colored  boy  (a  mulatto)  tested  to  the  average- 
normal  group,  his  I.  Q.  being  .97.  The  14  Mexican-Indian  children  are 
grouped  as  follows:  feeble-minded,  2;  borderline,  3;  dull-normal,  4; 


74 


STATE    BOARD    OF    CHARITIES    AND    CORRECTIONS. 


average-normal,  4;  superior.  1.  The  I.  Q.'s  arranged  in  order  are  .68, 
.70,  .75,  .77,  .79,  .84,  .85,  .86,  .89.  .92,  .94,  .95,  1.05,  1.14.  The  medjan 
I.  Q.  is  .85,  considerably  below  that  for  all  races  combined.  "Whrl  lu-r 
this  inferiority  of  dependent  Mexican-Indian  children  is  due  to  a  rela- 
tively lower  racial  level  than  is  found  among  American  whites  can  be 
determined  only  by  more  extended  research  into  the  field  of  racial 
intelligence  differences.  The  range  of  I.  Q.'s  obtained  suggests  that 
Mexican-Indian  children  are  at  no  special  disadvantage  when  tests  are 
applied  to  them.  Results  of  tests  given  at  Whittier  State  School  justify 
similar  conclusions. 

Illegitimacy.  Contrary  to  expectations,  very  few  children  were 
found  to  have  been  born  out  of  wedlock;  five  positive  cases  and  one 
doubtful  one.  Of  the  positive  cases,  three  are  feeble-minded  (I.  Q.'s 
.56,  .72,  .73)  ;  one  is  average-normal  (I.  Q.  .94)  and  one  is  of  superior 
intelligence  (I.  Q.  1.11).  The  doubtful  case  is  average-normal  (I.  Q. 
.98).  The  conditions  associated  with  the  illegitimacy  are  those  already 
described  in  the  reports  of  personal  and  family  history.  The  fact  that 
three  of  the  five  positive  cases  are  feeble-minded  is  significant,  especially 
in  the  light  of  the  findings  among  the  unwed  mothers. 

IV.  Early   Environmental   Conditions. 

Preinstitution  History.  The  ages  at  which  the  children  were  admitted 
to  the  institutions  are  shown  in  Table  VII.  These  ages  are  distributed 
between  2  and  13  years,  the  median  being  8  years.  The  average  age 
differs  slightly  among  the  several  social-intelligence  groups,  the  medians 
falling  as  follows:  superior,  8  years;  average-normal,  7  years:  dull- 
normal,  8  years;  borderline,  9  years;  feeble-minded,  9  years.  These 
differences  are  not  great  enough  to  be  of  much  importance  considering 
the  number  of  cases. 

TABLE  VII.     Distribution  of  Ages  at  Which  Children  Were  Admitted  to  Institutions, 
by  Social-Intelligence  Groups. 


Age 

§ 

j 

! 

I 

I 

[ 

i 

,- 

o 

! 

r 
j 

P 

- 

i 

i 

: 

i 

i 

I 

J 

! 

i 

: 

9 

1 

1 

*? 

? 

9 

9 

1 

18 

Average-normal 

1 

6 

3 

11 

14 

*10 

6 

11 

2 

9 

i 

fi 

74 

Dull-normal    

1 

1 

1 

2 

4 

5 

*6 

4 

1 

1 

?. 

?. 

30 

Borderline 

1 

9 

? 

*3 

4 

3 

15 

1 

1 

? 

*1 

1 

9 

1 

q 

Totals 

? 

0 

5 

17 

?1 

18 

17 

>22 

9 

D 

7 

10 

14fi 

SURVEYS  IN   MENTAL   DEVIATION. 


We  may  say,  then,  that  the  average  child  in  these  institutions  has  spent 
the  first  eight  years  of  his  life  in  some  other  environment  than  that  of 
the  orphanage.  A  few  have  been  in  other  institutions  before  entering 
that  in  which  they  are  now  located,  but  the  number  of  these  is  so  small 
that  our  suppositions  with  reference  to  the  average  child  is  not  greatly 
affected.  The  success  of  the  orphanage  lies  in  the  continuance  of  the 
good  and  the  correction  of  the  evil  that  has  developed  during  these  eight 
preinstitutional  years.  A  study  of  the  home  conditions  reveals  in  most 
cases  certain  undesirable  elements.  These  conditions  are  due  chiefly 
to  hereditary  factors,  some  of  which  have  been  illustrated  in  this  report 
by  concrete  examples.  Desertion,  separation,  divorce,  disease  and 
immorality  among  members  of  the  family  are  not  uncommon.  Poverty 
is  less  common  than  we  had  expected  to  find,  but  is  sometimes  a  factor. 
Very  few  instances  are  found  where  children  have  been  taken  to 
orphanages  because  of  conditions  of  extreme  poverty.  The  institu- 
tions should  be  equipped  for  determining  the  early  influences 
surrounding  the  children.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  many  cases 
could  be  more  efficiently  dealt  with  if  these  conditions  were  sought  out 
and  their  relative  importance  understood. 

Parental  Conditions.  In  the  study  of  children  in  institutions  for 
orphans  much  interest  surrounds  the  parental  conditions  associated 
with  taking  the  children  out  of  their  original  homes  and  placing  them 
as  public  or  charitable  charges.  The  conditions  with  reference  to 
whether  parents  are  living  or  dead  are  shown  in  Table  VIII.  Four 
conditions  are  possible:  (a)  both  parents  dead;  (6)  father  living, 
mother  dead;  (c)  father  dead,  mother  living;  (d)  both  living.  The 
striking  fe.ature  of  the  table  is  the  small  proportion  of  whole 
orphans — only  7  per  cent  of  the  total  144  reported  cases.  In  93  per 
cent  of  the  cases,  at  least  one  parent  is  living  and  in  40.9  per  cent, 
both  parents  are  living.  Of  course,  there  are  many  cases  in  which  one 
or  both  parents  may  have  been  absent  from  the  family  because  of 
divorce,  desertion,  separation,  insanity,  criminality,  etc.,  in  which  cases 
the  dependency  of  the  children  is  easily  accounted  for. 

TABLE  VIII.     Intelligence  and  Parental  Conditions — Orphan  Group. 


Father  

j 

1 

Borderline  

Dull-normal- 

> 

Superior  

f 

! 

| 

r 

| 

1 

! 

1 

A                  

D 

D 

5 

4 

1 

10 

7.0 

B             — 

L 

D 

2 

8 

5 

12 

4 

31 

21.5 

o         

D 

L 

1 

3 

9 

26 

5 

44 

30.6 

D  — 

L 

L 



3 

18 

30 

8 

59 

40.9 

8 

14 

32 

72 

18 

144 

100.0 

STATE   BOARD    OF    CHARITIES    AND    CORRECTIONS. 


Iii  cases  in  which  only  one  parent  is  living  the  proportion  of 
widowed  mothers  (30.6  per  cent)  is  significantly  greater  than  that  of 
BOMI  where  the  father  is  left  with  the  care  of  the  children  (21.5  per 
cent).  It  would  appear  from  these  figures  that  the  death  of  the  father 
is  of  more  serious  consequence  in  dependency  than  the  death  of  the 
mother.  This  is  a  problem  for  juvenile  research  which  might  yield 
highly  important  results. 

The  distribution  of  these  parental  condition  groups  according  to  the 
intelligence  of  the  children  (Table  VIII)  shows  no  striking  differences. 
It  is  interesting  that  more  than  half  of  the  feeble-minded  children  are 
whole  orphans,  and  that  half  of  the  whole  orphan  group  are  feeble- 
minded. A  large  number  of  cases  might  not  reveal  such  group 
differences. 

V.  Physical  and  Health  Conditions. 

It  has  not  been  within  the  province  of  this  survey  to  make  any 
detailed  study  of  physical  and  health  conditions  except  in  so  far  as 
these  conditions  are  related  to  the  intellectual  and  social  development. 
It  should  be  mentioned,  however,  that  the  physical  condition  of  the 
children,  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases,  is  noticeable  for  its  excellence. 
Medical  attention  has  been  generously  given  in  all  institutions  visited 
and  close  health  supervision  is  provided.  A  summary  of  the  condi- 
tions, recorded  incidentally,  is  shown  in  Table  IX.  Most  institutions 
have  ample  play  space,  and  in  all  cases  the  playground  is  popular  with 
the  children.  Fresh  air,  cleanliness  and  good  food  were  found. 
Children  are  being  taught  the  principles  of  cleanliness  in  a  way  which 
would  furnish  an  object  lesson  to  many  parents  who  are  bringing  up 
their  own  children.  This  sort  of  intelligent  administration  goes  far 
toward  the  making  of  useful,  efficient  and  happy  citizens. 


TABLE  IX.     PJi>/xi<-<il 


iiifj  lliiillli    Condition*   Among   Orjiln/n    Cliildrcn,    Inj   Social- 
Intelligence  Groups. 


c""*"             ass 

Border- 
line 

miii- 

nonual 

Average- 
normal 

Superior 

Total 

Good  .    .    5 

12 

23 

68 

13 

121 

Xorvoti"                                                                2 

2 

1 

1 

6 

Weak                        ..                   .      _     ..      .. 

2 

1 

1 

4 

Tubercular                                                          1 

2 

3 

Defective  evo< 

1 

1 

St.  Yitus  dance 

1 

1 

Totals                                                            8 

15 

26 

71 

16 

136 

STRYEVS    IX    .MKXTAL    DEVIATION. 


77 


VI.  School  Progress. 
TABLE  X.     Age-Grade  J)i*trH>iition  of  Orphan  Children  Who  Have  Attended  School. 


| 

w 
H 

r 

P 

--i 

r1 

a 

X 

3 

D 

| 

P* 

! 

I 

! 

1 

| 

i 

! 

5  

\ 

1 

5 

6  

5 

10 

2 

17 

7     _  — 

7 

6 

1 

14 

8  

1 

1 

? 

4 

g 

9  .  •„ 

1 

3 

| 

4 

•> 

15 

10    .    ._  

? 

5 

7 

^ 

17 

11 

7 

7 

7 

| 

19 

12 

2 

<> 

3 

4 

I 

2 

17 

13    ._   _. 

1 

1 

1 

0 

3 

5 

H 

14 

1 

1 

1 

^ 

3 

| 

14 

15 

16 

1 

1 

•7 

17 

1 

1 

18     _  

jq 

20 

Totals        __•___  _- 

5 

9 

iff, 

1? 

?0 

?3 

18 

1?- 

9 

10 

9 

14'' 

Age-grade  Distribution.  The  present  ages  and  school  grades  of  the 
142  children  attending  school  are  shown  in  Table  X.  The  number  of 
children  for  each  age  and  grade  is  given.  The  row  of  black  figures 
running  diagonally  down  the  table  represents  the  number  of  each  age 
and  grade  who  are  making  normal  progress;  that  is,  who  are  in  the 
grade  reached  by  most  children  of  that  age.  Children  represented  by 
figures  above  or  to  the  right  of  the  diagonal  column  are  accelerated: 
these  have  made  progress  relatively  more  rapid  than  that  of  ordinary- 
children.  Figures  below  and  to  the  left  of  the  diagonal  column  are 
retarded,  or  below  the  grade  in  which  they  should  be,  according  to 
normal  averages. 

Omitting  the  14  children  included  in  the  ungraded  and  kindergarten 
groups,  we  find  of  the  remaining  128  cases,  43  are  accelerated,  40  are 
making  normal  progress  and  45  are  retarded.  This  is  a  reasonably 
normal  distribution  and  does  not  differ  greatly  from  what  would  be 
found  in  almost  any  school  system.  An  important  fact  is  that  7  of 
the  children,  or  about  5£  per  cent  of  the  total  number,  are  retarded 
three  years  or  more.  This  agrees  closely  with  the  proportion  of  feeble- 
minded found.  Not  all  of  the  retarded  children  are  feeble- 
minded, however,  nor  are  all  of  the  feeble-minded  children  retarded. 
The  progress  by  intelligence  groups  may  be  seen  in  Table  XT.  Thnv 
is  yet  much  to  be  done  by  the  public  schools  by  way  of  abolishing 
automatic  promotions  and  grading  children  according  to  stages  in 


STATE    BOARD    OF    CHARITIES   AND    CORRECTIONS. 


actual  development.  The  introduction  of  ungraded  rooms  has  done 
much  toward  reaching  the  needs  of  the  individual  child,  and  the 
continuance  of  these  rooms  should  be  encouraged.  Feeble-minded 
children,  of  course,  who  make  up  the  bulk  of  ungraded  pupils  should 
be  eliminated  entirely  from  the  public  schools  and  placed  in  special 
institutions. 

TABLE  XI.     Progress  of  Orphan  Children  in  School  Grades  ~by  Social  Intelligence 

Groups. 


Betar 

fled 

AcceK 

rated 

—4 

—8       i 

—2 

—l 

Normal 

+1 

+2 

Total 

Superior 

3 

4 

7 

4 

18 

Average-normal  

2 

8 

23 

26 

1 

60 

Dull-normal  

3 

8 

12 

3 

1 

27 

Borderline 

3 

7 

4 

1 

1 

16 

Feeble-minded 

1 

2 

2 

2 

7 

Totals  

1 

5 

14 

25 

40 

36 

7 

128 

VII.  The  Problem  of  Social  Conduct. 

Institutions  and  Morals.  To  what  extent  any  institution  can  replace 
the  home  to  the  best  interests  and  development  of  the  child  has  been 
the  subject  of  much  discussion.  Perhaps  those  who  see  the  far- 
reaching  influences  of  the  best  institutions  and  their  advantages  over 
the  average  home,  tend  to  overlook  some  of  the  benefits  of  home  life 
which  can  never  be  duplicated  by  institution  methods.  On  the  other 
hand,  those  who  place  superior  confidence  in  the  home  overlook  many 
of  the  facts  surrounding  the  previous  home  life  of  most  institution 
children.  In  the  light  of  what  has  been  learned  concerning  the  influ- 
ence of  heredity  and  environmental  conditions,  it  is  not  difficult  to 
see  that  a  well-equipped,  sanitary  institution,  providing  three  whole- 
some meals  each  day,  and  minus  the  daily  contact  with  quarrelsome, 
immoral  or  abusive  parents,  is  a  much  better  place  for  children  than 
some  homes  could  ever  become.  That  home  should  be  a  place  of  love, 
cooperation  and  devotion  is  a  strange  revelation  to  many  children. 
Moreover,  to  assume  that  every  home  can  become  an  ideal  place  for 
children  is  to  entirely  overlook  important  and  unchanging  facts. 

The  institution  is  not  bound  by  the  conditions  which  determine,  to 
so  large  an  extent,  the  quality  of  the  home.  There  is  no  divorce, 
unhappy  separation,  feeble-mindedness,  insanity,  drunkenness  or 
criminality  among  the  persons  exercising  parental  supervision.  If 
they  are  incompetent  or  become  abusive  their  undesirable  presence 
may  be  eliminated.  The  institution  (under  state  supervision)  does 
not  become  poverty  stricken  and  is  not  dependent  upon  employment 


SURVEYS   IN   MENTAL   DEVIATION.  .79 

for  its  income.  There  is  no  doubt  that  whatever  shortcomings  some 
institutions  may  have  (especially  some  of  those  of  several  years  ago, 
now  for  the  most  part  improved  or  eliminated)  they  are  superior  to 
the  homes  from  which  many  of  their  children  come.  Some  institutions 
might  render  an  excellent  service  by  setting  an  example  to  certain 
fathers  and  mothers  who  are  expecting  to  retain  their  children. 

It  should  be  explained  that  not  all  the  children  in  orphan  homes 
are  placed  there  because  of  parental  death  or  incompetency,  or  for 
other  reasons  which  would  necessarily  bring  about  a  state  of  absolute 
dependency.  A  study  of  the  figures  in  Table  VIII  leads  to  the 
discovery  that  most  of  the  children  included  in  this  survey  have  been 
placed  in  institutions  ~by  their  parents.  Most  of  these  parents  are 
honest,  deserving,  hard-working  people  who,  in  the  opinion  of  the 
institution  officials,  are  in  no  way  shifting  their  responsibilities,  and 
who  pay  a  substantial  amount  toward  the  maintenance  of  their 
children. 

Inasmuch  as  the  institution  is  called  upon  to  provide  for  the  pre- 
adolescent  home  training  of  children,  its  moral  influence  at  this 
important  period  of  development  is  a  matter  of  grave  importance. 
It  is  not  at  all  surprising  that  certain  institutions  have  been  blamed 
for  the  development  of  wayward  tendencies  in  their  charges,  for  it 
is  during  this  period  that  delinquency  often  begins  to  assert  itself. 
The  causes  of  delinquency  are  so  little  understood  at  the  present  time 
that  it  would  be  well  to  disregard  any  sweeping  assumptions.  Cer- 
tainly nothing  has  been  observed  in  the  institutions  studied  by  us 
which  would  justify  the  conclusion  that  they  are  in  any  way  more 
productive  of  waywardness  than  is  the  average  public  school.  In  fact, 
the  observations  have  led  toward  the  belief  that  all  of  these  four  insti- 
tutions have  in  some  cases  actually  prevented  what  might  under  other 
conditions  have  developed  into  dangerously  unsocial  conduct. 

Potential  Delinquency.  These  institutions,  then,  are  in  effect,  pre- 
ventives of  delinquency  in  that  they  receive  a  certain  proportion  of 
children  who  without  their  care  might  easily  go  astray.  In  this  way 
they  serve  a  useful  purpose,  in  addition  to  that  for  which  they  are 
intended,  and  one  which  should  logically  be  taken  over  by  the  state.  In 
every  children's  home  and  in  every  public  school  there  are  a  few 
children  who  show  evidence  of  what  may  be  considered  potential  delin- 
quency. A  potential  delinquent  is  a  child  whose  behavior  and  the  con- 
ditions surrounding  him  are  so  much  like  the  former  behavior  and  sur- 
rounding conditions  of  children  who  have  since  become  delinquent  that 
preventive  measures  are  an  urgent  need.  Comparative  studies  of  the 
early  history  and  surroundings  of  hundreds  of  boys  committed  to  Whit- 
tier  State  School  have  led  to  the  belief  that  many  of  these  boys  could 


80  STATE   BOARD   OF    CHARITIES   AND    CORRECTIONS. 

have  been  directed  more  wisely  had  their  social  tendencies  been  better 
understood.  Nearly  all  boys  who  become  wards  of  the  juvenile  court  at 
the  age  of  13  or  14  were  repeating  at  a  much  earlier  age  the  history  of 
other  delinquents.  When  we  know  more  of  the  causes  of  delinquency  it 
will  not  be  at  all  difficult  to  differentiate  the  potentially  delinquent 
children  from  those  who  are  likely  to  become  socially  normal.  But 
even  at  the  present  time  principals  and  teachers  can  select  the  most 
incorrigible  cases,  and  it  is  only  to  the  best  interests  of  these  children 
and  the  school  in  general  that  they  be  separately  instructed  and  the 
causes  of  their  condition  studied. 

Following  are  some  illustrative  cases  of  potentially  delinquent  children 
found  in  the  children 's  institutions  included  in  this  survey : 

1.  Boy.     Age  14.     Of  borderline  intelligence.     Slow,  dull,  irrespon- 
sive and  stupid  in  school,  and  a  habitual  thief  around  the  institution 
and  at  school.     Is  greatly  retarded  and  not  interested  in  school  work. 
Teachers  do  not  realize  that  he  is  almost  sure  to  become  delinquent  if 
some  special  form  of  guidance  and  supervision  is  not  soon  provided. 

2.  Girl.     Age  7.     Dull-normal.     Good  in  school.     Is  from  a  family 
of  foreigners  whose  morals  are  not  yet  adjusted  to  American  standards. 
Has  shown  a  strong  tendency  to  steal.     Should  not  be  difficult  to  cor- 
rect at  this  age,  but  care  should  be  taken  to  avoid  the  formation  of 
more  vicious  habits.     Hardly  a  case  for  a  special  institution,  however. 

3.  Boy.     Age   6.     Average-normal.     Just  started   to   school  and   is 
doing  well.     Lies,  fights  and  shows  other  strongly  unsocial  tendencies. 
Mother  is  virtually  a  prostitute,  and  has  deserted  her  children. 

4.  Boy.     Age  13.     Of  superior  intelligence.     I.  Q.  1.15.     Highly  con- 
ceited.    School  work  is  too  easy  for  him  and  consequently  has  much  time 
for  play  and  annoying  other  children.     Has  repeatedly  stolen  money 
and  tells  obvious  lies  with  a  characteristic  face  of  innocence.     Inasmuch 
as  his  home  conditions  are  not  desirable,  it  would  be  to  his  advantage  if 
he  were  to  spend  a  few  years  in  a  well-equipped  parental  school.     Such 
highly  intelligent  children  are  too  valuable  to  be  allowed  to  become  social 
derelicts. 

5.  A  Mexican  girl.     Age  14.     Average-normal.     Has  made  normal 
progress  in  school.     Parents  are  undesirable  and  her  ten  years  of  asso- 
ciation with  them,  and  their  low  standards,  contributed  little  to  her 
social  balance.     Shows  strong  tendencies  toward  immorality  and  should 
not  leave  the  institution  without  a  guarantee  of  proper  supervision. 

6.  Boy.     Age  11.     Borderline.     Dull  in  school  work,  and  but  feebly 
applies  himself.     Is  an  "all-around"  bad  boy.     A  continual  annoyance. 
Difficult  to  mange,  will  not  obey  and  refuses  to  work.     Is  more  than 
"mischevious"  and  to  excuse  his  pranks  by  applying  such  a  term  to 
them  is  a  policy  of  doubtful  value.     His  mother  is  dead  and  his  father 


SURVEYS   IN   MENTAL   DEVIATION.  81 

is  a  worthless  immoral  man  who  is  wholly  incompetent  to  exercise  satis- 
factory parental  control  even  if  he  were  desirous  of  doing  so.  This  boy 
could  profit  greatly  from  the  individual  attention  which  would  be  given 
him  in  a  parental  trade  school. 

The  foregoing  examples  will  serve  to  indicate  the  gravity  of  the 
problem,  which  it  is  to  be  hoped  will  receive  a  larger  share  of  attention 
in  the  future.  To  these  cases  might  be  added  certain  incidents  from 
the  earlier  life  of  some  of  the  unwed  mothers. 

The  orphanages  receive  but  a  small  proportion  of  these  potentially 
delinquent  children.  Their  presence  in  an  orphanage  is  objectionable 
for  the  same  reason  that  it  is  objectionable  in  the  public  school.  The 
fact  that  the  orphanages  provide  twenty-four-hour  supervision  is  to 
their  advantage,  and  the  mere  fact  that  they  have  been  removed  from 
their  homes  in  some  cases,  is  beneficial.  A  state  parental  school  special- 
izing in  the  early  guidance  of  potentially  delinquent  children  would  be 
a  distinct  advantage  to  all  children 's  institutions  in  the  state,  and  would 
go  far  toward  eliminating  juvenile  delinquency  and  crime. 

VIII.  Summary. 

1.  This  survey  report  is  made  by  the  Department  of  Research  of 
"Whittier  State  School  to  the  California  State  Board  of  Charities  and 
Corrections.     It  includes  the  results  of  intelligence  tests,  with  supple- 
mentary data,  of  150  children  and  12  unwed  mothers,  all  of  whom  are 
in  private  institutions  under  state  supervision. 

2.  The  orphanage  children  test  slightly  lower,  on  the  average,  than  do 
many  school  children,  age  for  age.     The  average  Intelligence  Quotient 
of  the  institution  children  is  .94,  that  of  unselected  children  being  1.00. 
The  average  I.  Q.  of  the  unwed  mothers  is  .77,  which  indicates  marked 
inferiority  to  average  adults. 

3.  In  the  orphanage  group,  9  children,  or  6  per  cent  of  the  total,  are 
definitely  feeble-minded.     Of  the  12  unwed  mothers,  5  are  feeble-minded. 
All  of  these  feeble-minded  persons  are  so  inferior  to  the  general  popula- 
tion, with  reference  to  their  use  of  mental  operations  as  to  render  them 
incapable   of  managing   themselves   and  their   affairs  with   ordinary 
prudence.     They  will  always  remain  children,  mentally,  and  for  their 
own  protection  and  for  the  protection  of  society  they  should  be  placed 
in  permanent  custodial  care. 

4.  Using  the  proportion  of  feeble-minded  children  in  these  four 
orphanages  (6  per  cent)  as  a  basis  (which  is  believed  to  be  safely  con- 
servative), we  may  estimate  that  there  are  no  fewer  than  319  feeble- 
minded children  in  the  61  orphanages  under  the  supervision  of  the 
State  Board  of  Charities  and  Corrections.     It  would  be  advantageous 
to  all  if  one  or  two  children's  institutions  were  to  specialize  in  the  care 


82  STATE   BOARD   OF    CHARITIES   AND    CORRECTIONS. 

and  training  of  the  feeble-minded,  and  thus  provide  a  place  of  transfer 
for  all  mentally  defective  orphans. 

5.  In  addition  to  the  feeble-minded  cases  there  is  a  still  larger  pro- 
portion of  borderline  and  inferior-normal  cases  in  both  the  orphanage 
and  unwed  mother  groups.     Many  of  these  cases  require  supervision, 
but  not  necessarily  custodial  care,  to  insure  their  social  stability. 

6.  The  average-normal  and  superior  intelligence  groups  are  repre- 
sented among  both  the  orphans  and  unwed  mothers.     The  children  and 
young  women  of  these  higher  levels  will  probably  take  their  places  in 
society   and  become   successful,   depending  upon  temperamental  and 
volitional  factors. 

7.  Studies  of  the  family  history  of  representative  cases  indicate  the 
relation  of  heredity  to  the  problem  of  dependency.     Hereditary  traits, 
including  feeble-mindedness,  insanity,  epilepsy,  excitability,  etc.,  play 
important  parts  in  bringing  children  to  institutions.     The  making  of 
ample  provision  for  the  feeble-minded  will  in  itself  go  far  toward  the 
elimination  of  some  of  the  most  undesirable  forms  of  dependency. 

8.  Supplementary  information  on  home  and  neighborhood  conditions 
shows  their  close  relation  to  dependency  and  illegitimacy.     Hereditary 
transmission    of    weakened    traits    often    gives    rise    to    unfavorable 
environment. 

9.  The  physical  and  health  conditions  among  the  children  and  unwed 
mothers  are  noticeably  good.     Medical  supervision  has  been  generously 
provided  in  most  cases.     The  detailed  observation  of  these  conditions, 
however,  was  not  within  the  province  of  this  survey. 

10.  The  school  progress   of  the  orphanage   children  has  not  been 
greatly  inferior  to  that  of  ordinary  children  of  the  same  age.     A  close 
relation  is  always  found  between  the  amount  of  school  retardation  and 
the  proportion  of  feeble-minded  and  borderline  cases. 

11.  The  number,  of  children  in  the  orphanage  who  may  be  considered 
•potentially  delinquent  emphasizes  the  need  for  a  general  parental  school. 
Early  and  special  attention  must  be  given  to  such  children  if  they  are  to 
successfully  combat  the  temptations  which  lead  to  delinquency,  and 
become  useful,  independent  citizens. 

The  Mental  Examination  of  Seventy-five  Children  at  the  "Y"  Home. 
General  Conclusions. 

By  GRACE  M.  FERNALD,  M.D. 

During  the  summer  of  1917  mental  examination  was  made  of  75,  out 
of  a  total  of  85,  of  the  children  at  the  "Y"  Home.  All  of  these 
children  have  been  placed  in  this  home  because  of  death  of  parents, 
family  poverty,  or  of  other  conditions  which  have  broken  up  the 
home. 


SURVEYS   IN   MENTAL   DEVIATION.  83 

Our  study  of  the  family  histories  is  incomplete  because  of  lack  of 
time.  The  report  on  45  of  the  75  cases  shows  the  following  family 
conditions : 

TABLE  I.* 

Parents  separated  __ 8  cases  or'  17.7  per  cent 

Mother  dead  14  ^s^  or  31  5  per  cent 

Father  dead 12  cases  or  26.6  per  cent 

Parents  unknown  _.       5  cases  or  11.1  per  cent 

Poverty  at  home 14  cases  or  31.5  per  cent 

Foreign  parents _ 21  cases  or  46.6  per  cent 

Parents'  record  good 2  cases  or    4.4  per  cent 

Mother  immoral 1  case    or     2.2  per  cent 

Malnutrition.-    4  cases  or    8.8  per  cent 

Father  in  prison 2  cases  or    4.4  per  cent 

Child  abandoned 4  cases  or    8.8  per  cent 

In  most  cases  the  children  spoke  English  more  readily  than.  .any. 
other  language.  In  any  case  in  which  the  language  factor  might  have 
counted  against  the  child>  the  child  was  tested  in  the  language  which 
was  spoken  by  her  parents. 

All  the  initial  mental  tests  were  made  by  Miss  Lucile  Phillips,  a 
senior  at  Vassar  College ;  Miss  Edythe  Bryant,  a  senior  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  California,  or  by  Miss  Maud  Whitlock  and  Miss  Margaret  Sul- 
livan, teachers  in  the  Los  Angeles  City  schools.  Special  psychological 
and  educational  tests  were  made  by  the  writer  in  all  cases  of  children 
who  were  graded  as  below  normal  in  mentality.  The  mental  age  of 
each  child  was  obtained  by  the  Stanford  Revision  and  Binet-Simon 
(1911  Revision)  Scale.  The  results  obtained  by  the  Stanford  Revision 
were  as  follows : 

TABLE  II. 

Intelligence  quota  above  100  per  cent 10 

Intelligence  quota,  85-100  per  cent - 32 

Intelligence  quota,  75-85  per  cent 16 

Intelligence  quota  under  75  per  cent 13 

Tests  incomplete 4 

Our  final  grading,  based  on  the  results  of  all  of  the  tests  would  be 
as  follows: 

TABLE  III. 

Superior   intelligence 2 2.7  per  cent 

Normal 40 53.3  per  cent 

Borderline    12 16.0  per  cent)        33.3 

Moron   13 17.3  per  cents     defective 

Retarded  but  not  defective___  4 5.3  per  cent 

Mentality  doubtful 4 5.3  per  cent 

Total   _  —75 


*In  interpreting  Table  I  it  should  be  noted  that  several  conditions  are  frequently 
found  in  one  home  so  that  the  same  case  would  be  included  under  several  heads.  For 
example,  death  of  the  father  and  poverty  usually  go  together.  Each  percentage  given 
simply  refers  to  the  number  of  cases  per  hundred  in  which  a  given  condition  is  found. 


84 


STATE   BOARD   OF    CHARITIES   AND    CORRECTIONS. 


The  most  striking  thing  about  the  results  is  the  large  number  of 
mental  defectives.  It  is  obvious  that  these  children  should  receive 
some  special  instruction  leading  up  to  some  form  of  mechanical 
occupation. 

The  following  table  shows  the  school  grade  of  the  children  of  the 
various  mental  levels.  In  all  cases  the  report  of  the  school  was  verified 
by  educational  tests.  There  was  very  little  difference  in  the  grading 
of  the  children  as  the  result  of  the  educational  tests  and  the  school 
grade  in  which  they  were  placed.  In  interpreting  our  results  it  is 
necessary  to  take  into  account  the  fact  that  many  of  these  children 
have  been  in  the  Home  only  a  short  time  and  that  they  have  come 
from  environments  which  are  not  conducive  to  regular  attendance. 

TABLE  IV. 


I 

Scl 

1001 

8. 

Adva 

need 

1 

Beta 

rded 

1 

Mental  classification 

f 

1 

f 

F 

r  age  for  grade. 

1 

I 

3  years  

1 

! 

i 
i 

Superior 

2 

1 

1 

0 

o 

o 

o 

o 

Normal 

40 

1 

o 

13 

10 

4 

3 

o 

9 

Retarded,  but  not  defective 
Borderline  

4 
12 

I 

1 
0 

1 

5 

0 
3 

0 
2 

0 

0 

0 

o 

13 

•     0 

o 

o 

5 

4 

1 

Doubtful  mentality    - 

4 

o 

o 

0 

4 

0 

0 

0 

Q 

School  grades  not  known,  2  cases.    Total,  75  cases. 

Table  IV  shows  that  the  children  are  very  defective  from  the  stand- 
point of  education.  Over  half  of  the  children  of  normal  mentality 
are  retarded  at  least  a  year  in  school..  Over  a  fifth  of  the  children  of 
normal  mentality  are  retarded  two  or  more  years. 

This  means  that  one  of  the  first  things  to  be  done  for  these  children 
is  to  make  up  this  deficit  in  education.  The  task  is  particularly 
difficult  because  many  of  these  children  show  a  timidity  and  lack  of 
initiative  which  makes  it  necessary  to  use  special  methods  to  awaken 
normal  activity. 

The  educational  lack  is  more  marked  in  the  defective  than  in  the 
normal  children  as  would  be  expected.  Table  IV  shows  the  extent  to 
which  these  children  are  retarded  in  terms  of  school  grade,  but  the 
educational  tests  show  a  certain  amount  of  formal  training  with  very 
little  practical  ability  and  very  little  training  in  any  line  of  work  for 
which  children  of  their  mentality  are  fitted.  For  example,  many  of 
them  read  without  being  able  to  tell  anything  about  what  they  read. 


SURVEYS   IN   MENTAL.   DEVIATION. 


All  of  these  defective  children  who  have  been  in  the  home  for  any 
lengtn  of  time  are  much  better  in  their  ability  to  read  than  in 
arithmetic,  showing  that  the  formal  side  of  their  education  has  been 
good,  but  that  they  lack  the  mental  capacity  required  for  arithmetical 
work. 

It  is  evidently  a  waste  of  time  to  attempt  any  further  formal  educa- 
tion with  the  children  of  deficient  mentality,  as  the  children  have 
reached  the  limit  of  their  capacity  in  that  direction  and  yet  no 
systematic  arrangement  is  made  for  their  education  along  industrial 
lines.  It  might  be  noted  here  that  this  particular  home  does  not  differ 
greatly  from  our  public  school  system  in  this  respect. 

TABLE  V. 


Average  age 

Average 
mental  age 

Average 
school  grade 

Number  of 

cases 

13-3J 

106 

5 

2 

124 

11-1 

5 

g 

11-5 

10-1 

4§ 

9 

10-5  _    

8-8 

3 

11 

94  

7-6 

2 

6 

8-2  .      .      

6-5 

li 

8 

7-2      ._       ..                                                       

6-10 

1 

10 

6-5     .                                                                                 _      _. 

6-2 

1 

8 

5-1                                                                                           _    . 

5-5 

0 

8 

4 

44 

0 

1 

Data  incomplete* 

4 

Total 

75 

STATE   BOAED   OF    CHARITIES   AND    CORRECTIONS. 

CHART  I.     Showing  the  average  mental  and  school  retardation  of  children. 

Represents  average  chronological  ages. 

Represents  average  mental  ages. 

Represents  average  school  ages. 


/3yrs. 
IZyrs 
l/yrs 
/Oyr? 

\ 

\ 

\ 

\ 

\ 

S\ 

x' 

\ 

\ 

\ 

9yrs. 
8  yrs 

\ 

\\ 

\ 
\ 

\ 

\ 

\ 

7 

7yrs 

6  yrs 
5  yrs. 
4  yrs. 

§ 

\x 

V 
V 

^^»>v 

<^" 

xx  \ 

\ 

^ 

c  \" 

x\ 

\ 

^ 

2  Cases  8  Cases  9C*se3  //Ctses  6c*scs  dCdses  /Oc*s<s  8&ses  <9Os«Vcwe 

The  ordinates  (vertical  lines)  represent  average  age  (chronological,  mental  or 
school)  ;  the  abscissae  (horizontal  lines)  simply  represent  a  year's  difference  in  the 
age  of  the  cases  averaged.  For  convenience  the  number  of  cases  averaged  is  written 
below  each  vertical  line. 

NOTE. — The  school  age  is  calculated  on  the  basis  of  the  age  at  which  the  child 
who  is  not  at  all  retarded  should  be  in  a  particular  grade. 

6  years  of  age first  grade 

7  years  of  age second  grade 

8  years  of  age third  grade 

9  years  of  age fourth  grade 

10  years  of  age fifth  grade 

11  years  of  age sixth  grade 

12  years  of  age seventh  grade 

13  years  of  age eighth  grade 

14  years  of  age : graduates  from  eighth  grade 

Chart  V  gives  the  average  chronological  ages  compared  with  the 
average  mental  age  and  with  the  school  age  of  the  child.  Chart  I  shows 
the  average  mental  and  school  retardation  of  the  children.  It  is  to  be 
noted  that  both  mental  and  school  retardation  are  greater  for  the  older 
than  for  the  younger  children. 


SURVEYS  IN   MENTAL   DEVIATION.  87 

GENERAL  CONCLUSIONS. 

I.  The  institution  here  reported  has  a  serious  problem  because  of  the 
large  percentage  of  the  children  who  are  mentally  deficient.     These 
children  are  really  out  of  place  in  any  institution  which  has  the  care 
of  normal  children.     Until  such  children  can  be  transferred  to  a  suitable 
institution,  they  should  receive  industrial  rather  than  formal  education. 

II.  The  institution  has  about  16  per  cent  of  its  children  typical 
borderline  cases.     These  children  should  all  be  taught  some  mechanical 
trade  very  thoroughly.     They  can  not  advance  much  above  the  fifth 
grade  level  at  best,  but  become  very  skillful  in  certain  not  too  compli- 
cated occupations.     Further  study  will  be  necessary  to  determine  how 
many  of  them  are  sufficiently  defective  to  be  institution  cases. 

III.  The  children  of  normal  mentality  are  so  retarded  in  their  formal 
education  as  to  need  the  best  available  methods  to  bring  them  up  to  their 
proper  grade  in  school.     They  also  need  much  free  play  and  activity  to 
develop  the  initiative  that  their  hard  early  surroundings  have  so  seri- 
ously repressed. 


University  of  California 

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405  Hilgard  Avenue,  Los  Angeles,  CA  90024-1388 

Return  this  material  to  the  library 

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JUN  0  3 


QL  OCT  0  8  200Z 


